Another year full of reading. These are the ones that I finished. There are a few I put down after a few chapters. I no longer finish those that don’t hold my interest. Our time is too short to make those kind of commitments that lead to boredom. There are still books that I’m savoring by reading a couple of chapters a month. Emerson’s Journals, Montaigne’s Essays, The Portable Atheist, Devotions by Mary Oliver and The Selected Works of Seneca, to name just a few. If anyone wants to talk about any of these just let me know.
January
Dangling Man by Saul Bellow
What better way to start off the year than with Bellow. The dangling man is Joseph. He quit his job to await his call up to the army. He and his wife, Iva, rent a room in a boarding house. They are not very comfortable. Joseph begins to slightly unravel with free time. He sits around their room brooding, reading and being lazy while Iva goes to work. When he does venture out he argues with his friends, his brother and Iva's family. He also has altercations with the other tenants in the house. The change in him does not go unnoticed.
This is Bellow's first novel and his genius is already apparent. Describing a girlfriend's breasts Joseph says, "..the world's most beautiful illustration of number, tender division of the flesh beginning high above the the lace neckline of her nightgown."
He quotes Goethe, "Nothing occasions this weariness (of life) more than the recurrence of the passion of love."
Later he says, "It isn't love that gives us weariness of life. It's our inability to be free."
I could argue for both.
In the end, oddly, Joseph chooses not to be free. At least for a time. Think about that.
Hawk of the Mind
Collected Poems Yang Mu
These are very full poems touching on all my favorite themes; time, loneliness, Nature's mysteries and wonders, the mind's wanderings and so much more. Mu writes with his eyes wide open and grasps and inspects the world on an emotional level that goes unnoticed by most people. He has a keen awareness of life's subtleties. These poems are precise translations and touch the heart on several levels. I have savored this book over the past few months. To quote:
"There's a rain falling lightly in my exiled heart."
"A little joy and countless worries."
"-- I reveal my brow
to the ocean, listening to memories of you
beyond my understanding."
Mythos
The Greek Myths Retold by Stephen Fry
A fantastic modern telling of the most famous stories of the lives of the Greek gods. Stephen Fry is a talented and entertaining guide through the often confusing and always complicated interrelationships of the Titans and the Immortals of Mount Olympus. He relates these tales with humor and an eye on how the gods, much like humanity, could be generous, amorous, quick witted, lustful, petty, jealous, arrogant, impatient, kind, wise, loyal, bored, lazy, or clever. Which is what you would expect from any god made in man's image.
Explanations of how flowers and trees, birds and honey, mountains and springs, music and wine came into existence are explained by the whims and curses of these impetuous personalities.
One of the beauties of this book, the first of Mr. Fry's that I've read, is that I can hear his voice as I read and can picture him reading it out loud. This adds an extra dimension to the enjoyment of his wit and his sense of life's oddness and unpredictability.
And I have found the minor god who has tormented me for a long time now. Pothos, she's never far from scratching my heart.
Arthur Fielder
Papa, the Pops, and Me by Johanna Fielder
I was hiking with some friends south from Vermont on the Appalachian Trail into Massachusetts. It was one of the few times I climbed Mount Greylock from the north. Arriving at the summit we noticed the flag at Bascom Lodge was flying at half staff. Inquiring inside from the hippy mountain girl who was selling cookies and flipping burgers we were told the great Arthur Fielder had passed away. It was the summer of 1979.
My father was a big fan of Fielder and I remember watching the maestro conduct on TV while Dad tried to impress upon me how every twitch of the baton meant something to the orchestra. How complicated the entire process of making music was when done with perfection. I still listen to Fielder's Boston Pops recordings when I'm in the mood to jump around the house. Or perhaps dance a waltz late at night with that delightful grey-eyed girl.
Ms. Fielder's book is memoir about what it was like to grow up with a famous father that she truly adored. But family life was difficult. Fielder was a stern and mostly distant father. Not much love was shared including that between her mother, who she grew to detest, and her siblings. Fighting for her father's attention seemed to be her life's mission. It is mostly a bitter account and there is too much airing of family laundry. The points made early on become wearisome two hundred pages later. Ms. Fielder does much soul searching but often times comes off as selfish as well as unloving. I would have enjoyed more descriptions of the performances I enjoyed watching all those years ago with my dad.
Solitude and Society from the Selected Writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson
An awfully old question, how to balance the two? My long time struggle. Both are necessary to remain healthy. But leaning heavily one way or the other, as some people can, causes me inner disruption. But I plod on, as did Emerson, trying to have the right amount of both in my life. He writes,
"Here again, as so often, nature delights to put us between extreme antagonisms, and our safety is in the skill with which we keep the diagonal line. Solitude is impractical, and society fatal."
Timefulness
How Thinking Like a Geologist Can Help Save the World by Marcia Bjornerud.
How to understand time spans greater than a few measly generations? Bjornerud argues that we must if we're are to survive the changes in the Earth's, not only climate, but also the events that will naturally occur regularly like earthquakes and tsunamis. We aren't properly prepared for these types of natural disasters that are defiantly in our future.
She writes that we have entered a new era, the Anthopocene. Which says that the behavior of man has imprinted the planet. And not in a beneficial way. We've altered more than just the atmosphere. We also changed the landscape as well as the oceans, contributing to mass extinctions on a scale seen at the borders of other major eras.
She writes about the Norse concept of Wryd, that the past has sway over us. And the Greek idea of Kairos, that there is a right time to make a decision. In other words timing is everything.
She got me thinking about that the earth is growing about as fast as it is eroding. And because of erosion there is, after fifty-five million years, more of the Himalaya on the floor of the Indian Ocean than there is above sea level.
I love her idea of intergenerational commons. Places we set aside and care for now with an eye on the future.
Our planet is five and a half billion years old. Science tells us we have about two billion more to go. That is of course if we can save ourselves from ourselves.
There's a lot to meditate on in this excellent book. Not only should we think big, but we also should think long.
Haiku Volume 4
Autumn - Winter by R. H. Blyth
This is a book I've read many times and often just flip through it during these seasons. Blyth is wonderful at comparing Japanese haiku with writers and ideas from western literature. Here's a few that caught my attention on these last couple of rainy days that I spent sitting by my window watching the squalls.
Winter having come,
The crows perch
On the scarecrow. Kikaku
The mountain grows darker,
Taking the scarlet
From the autumn leaves. Buson
The crescent moon
Is warped and bent:
Keen is the cold. Issa
Sleet falling:
Fathomless, infinite,
Loneliness. Jōsō
Hiking With Nietzsche
On Becoming Who You Are by John Kaag
Another fine book by Kaag, part memoir, part Nietzsche biography, part philosophical meditation. Kaag takes two trips, almost twenty years apart, to the Alps where Nietzsche retreated to write before he went mad. Kaag ponders existence, suicide, marriage, fatherhood and how to live. Like all philosophers there are thoughts of anguish and melancholy, love and wonder as well as the balance of solitude and society. He also writes about the necessity of facing our pains and acknowledging the undesirable parts of our life. And the simple fact the we are in charge of our own meaning and must find it where we can.
I love a quote from the innkeeper of the famous Waldhaus Hotel where Kaag stays with his family on his second trip. He says, "It would be a pity if everything had to be practical."
And Kaag writes, "Decline was inevitable, but how one went out was decidedly not."
The Story of Greece and Rome by Tony Spawforth
A very well written history book. Too bad I didn't have this one in high school. I would have learned a bit more, and maybe even aced a test or two. I was interested to learn that one of Constantine's heirs, Julian, was not really a Christian. And that if he didn't die young he may have reversed the empire's sole religion in favor of paganism. The world would be a very different place right now if that had happened.
Spawforth also quotes Saint Augustine writing to Christian woman who had been raped during wartime. "Some most flagrant and wicked desires are allowed free play by the secret judgement of God." You never have to scratch too deep to see the ugliness of even the most famous church fathers.
The book is full of asides like that. Spawforth is a thorough researcher. And he writes clearly and passionately.
Wade in the Water
Poems by Tracy K. Smith. Smith is our current poet laureate. Her poetry is very serious. Visceral. She champions the people on the margins; slaves and their families during the civil war, abused Muslim women, minorities, people too poor to move away from poison land and the helplessness of children. Things most of us don't think enough about. She has an extremely strong voice. She evokes both outrage and compassion. The later being born from the former. I'm going to reread this before passing it on to my friend Juliette.
On The Future by Sir Martin Rees
This short and easy to read book is jammed with fascinating and thought provoking subjects. It is the second book I've read so far this year that explains the Anthopocene. Humanity has altered the earth in such a way as to change evolution and cause massive species die-outs. That's a very sobering thought. The thrust of the book explains why we need to be more science literate. And to have more science in society in general. We live in a situation now with the internet that should help to create more independent scientists. Which Sir Martin says is certainly a hope to combat the problems of climate change and over population. The availability of information from public telescopes also allows for non-scientists researchers to make discoveries that could yield interesting results.
Dr. Rees touches on many other subjects from euthanasia to AI to global epidemics to Impossible Burgers.
An interesting thing he writes about is the size of a human. We are almost exactly midway between an atom and the sun. In other words it takes as many atoms to make us as it would take people to fill the sun.
I think I'll give this book to Ellie.
The Odes of Horace translated by David Ferry.
These poems by the Roman lyricist touch on everything. War, courage, fear, victory, the many gods, festivals, wine, better ways to live and the inevitable flow of time.
He writes,
Take everything as it comes.
Put down in your books as profit every new day
That Fortune allows you to have. While you're still young,
And while morose old age is far away,
There's love, there are parties, there's dancing and there's music,
There are young people out in the city squares together
As eventing comes on, there are whispers of lovers, there's laughter.
In poem after poem Horace reminds us that we have little control over the fate that the gods have chosen for us, so be brave and pay attention to our good luck because everything can change very quickly. And he advises us how to be happy and rich in heart.
That man alone is happy
And wears his crown secure who can gaze untempted
At all the heaped-up treasure of the world.
Later he says,
Be resolute when things are going against you,
But shorten sail when the fair wind blows too strong.
Ferry's translations are contemporary and flow nicely. The glossary at the end is both helpful and interesting.
One Hundred Poems From The Japanese translated by Kenneth Rexroth
These are short beautiful poems about love and longing, nature and loneliness. Rexroth, a master poet himself, has a wonderful feel for the simplicity of these old writers. For example;
The mists rises over
The still pools at Asuka.
Memory does not
Pass away so easily. Akahito
Imperceptible
It withers in the world,
This flower-like human heart. Komachi
I have always known
That at last I would
Take this road, but yesterday
I did not know that it would be today. Narihira.
Rexroth generously throws in a few haiku at the end of the book along with introductions of the poets.
Emerson Among the Eccentrics by Carlos Baker. A quirky biography of Ralph Waldo. But it's more than that, it's also a collection of sketches of his friends and other geniuses whom lived in Concord. We meet Thoreau and Alcott, Margaret Fuller and Nathaniel Hawthorne as well as Theodore Parker, Ellery Channing and Walt Whitman. All original and eccentric in their own ways. But Emerson is the sun they all revolve around. He is the first great American philosopher and had a vision that this country can produce its very own epic poets and artists and he pushed that vision on those other big thinkers.
The chapters on abolition are particularly searing. I had forgotten that Daniel Webster backed the Fugitive Slave Act. A stain on his career. Anytime I read Emerson, or read about him, I wonder what his voice sounded like. It must have been intense by the descriptions of how he mesmerized and captivated his audiences.
Baker was working on this book when he died and I wish there could have been more on Emerson's final years. His mind and memory fading, nature's cruel joke of stealing away his powers is heartbreaking. But Emerson, in his typical lifelong good humor, made a game out of trying to remember a word or the name of an object by describing everything he knew about it. His daughter Ellen writes that in the privacy of his family he delighted in these brain challenges. But was less apt to let his adoring public see his decline. In his final years he said to a friend, "Strange that the kind Heavens should keep us on earth after they have destroyed our connection with things."
This is really an enjoyable book and Baker's passion for his subject infuses his writing. His vivid portrait of all the all the "eccentrics" and the way they lived makes me aware of just how different life is barely a hundred and seventy years later. I think if Emerson could see America today he would be at a loss for words for a very different reason.
Welcome to the Universe
An Astrophysical Tour
By J. Richard Gott, Michael Strauss and Neil deGrasse Tyson
These are lectures from the class they taught at Princeton. It's a pretty technical book and took me a while to get through it. Much of it was just over my head. But as always with heavy science books even if the material is beyond me I am still in awe of the working of the cosmos. All three scientists write as clearly as they speak. Each with a distinct style. I had to work hard and concentrate on this book but it was worth it.
The Penguin Book of Japanese Short Stories. Edited by Jay Rubin with an introduction by Haruki Murakami.
I only recognized a few of the authors in this collection. The reviews were really good including one from Patti Smith. The stories are far ranging covering some old history right up to the current horrors of the last earthquake and tsunami. The voices are varied and some of the tales are quirky and surreal. The oddness of life flows through many of the stories and of course there is love and loneliness and the terrible aftermath of the nuclear bombs. War makes many appearances. All and all a wonderful selection of new writers for me to explore.
The Consolations of Philosophy by Alain de Botton
De Botton looks at five philosophers; Socrates, Seneca, Montaigne, Schopenhauer and Nietzsche and through their writings shows us how to deal with frustrations such as heartbreak, inadequacy, money, lack of fame and overcoming difficulties. Well written, full of excellent quotations and easy to read this could almost be considered a self-help book except it's too thought provoking. De Botton's own ideas stand up well with the great thinkers he admires. He throws out lines like; "We will cease to be so angry once we cease to be so hopeful." And, "...friendship a minor conspiracy against what other people think of as reasonable."
He distills the essence of his subjects partly through biography and partly through their writing. Lots of good stuff to ponder in this book and it indeed offered true consolation.
The White Book by Han Kang
An interesting, subtle, sparse collection of short chapters kind of focused on things the color white. But the austere musings go much deeper than color. There is the haunting death of a two hour old baby that reverberates over and over through the pages. There are almost poetic oneliners like;
"Nothing is eternal." That line can be read two ways.
"There are certain memories that remain inviolate to the ravages of time. And to those of suffering."
"As though there has never been a time when the only comfort lay in the impossibility of forever."
"I believe that no better words of parting can be found. 'Don't die. Live'."
It's rare that such a quick read provides so much to mull over.
Origins
The Scientific Story Of Creation by Jim Baggott
From 10 to the minus 43 seconds after the Big Bang to today's study of consciousness Baggott teaches about the first elementary particles to the formation of stars and galaxies. There are chapters on the beginning of our solar system, Earth's wild and wondrous phases as it cooled and then the beginning of life's long process and the amazing twists and turns evolution takes. The dead ends and die offs, mass extinctions and explosions of new life. And then, how humans finally came about. This would make a fantastic introductory text book of the natural history of the universe. I learned quite a bit. Although it took me two months to finish. I had to take a few breaks to digest it all.
The Four Horsemen by Christopher Hitchens, Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris and Daniel Dennett
An introduction by Stephen Fry
This book is a transcript of a conversation that took place at Hitchens' house right after they all published books extremely critical of religion. You can find it on YouTube and it's worth watching. It's also worth having the book. These four great minds are each so full of ideas and reason that it helps to make this a slow read so you can savor their wisdom. I have leaned on all of them and their other books for ammunition to back up my arguments with some of my less enlightened friends. With great success I might add. If you ever question your faith these brilliant writers are there to reassure you that you are on the right track to living a more rewarding and authentic life. And they do it with sincerity, wit and a deep knowledge of their subject. All in all a wonderful book.
Heroes by Stephen Fry
The second installment of his retelling of stories from Greek mythology. Here we meet Heracles, Perseus, Bellerophon, Orpheus, Jason and Theseus among others. They are all mortals whose exploits challenge the Gods. Sometimes they are helped or hindered by the immortals as pawns to alleviate their own petty squabbles. As always, Fry is extremely entertaining. He is a gifted storyteller. He enjoys the nuances of these heroes' foibles and desires and passions. It is a book full of bold actions and grand schemes. Fry leaves the interpretation of what these stories mean for contemporary times up to the reader.
The Nobel Lecture Bob Dylan
I listened to it after he recorded it. He sounded like he was riffing in a jazz club at three in the morning. A piano played softly in the background. It was fun to read Dylan's musing about his influences both literary and musical. I forget he loves Moby Dick. He doesn't draw any conclusions as to what his songs mean. They mean a lot of different things to different people. But he acknowledges his themes are universal and timeless. His words are, as always, poetic and living. He also notes that Nature doesn't pay attention to us. One of my favorite subjects.
How to Disappear
Notes on Invisibility in a Time of Transparency by Akiko Busch
Interesting essays on finding yourself by spending time alone. You don't have to share your entire life with everyone or anyone to be sure of who you are.
I found interesting Busch's explanation of Jardin Secret as a place or object or memory that we keep to ourselves and gain strength from.
She writes about the feeling of diving, being underwater in such a different world that for a time she becomes a different, unexplainable self.
There are chapters on hidden subjects in some artists' works where the more you look at something the less you see. Or you see what's been omitted or camouflaged. She gives plenty of examples of artists who shade their works with some amount of mystery or erasure.
Busch makes interesting points about impermanence and the flux of lives. We are always changing.
There's an odd chapter about the little people, the Huldufólk, that live hidden in the rocks of Iceland and Norway that I thought didn't fit with the rest of Busch's ideas.
But I loved what she wrote about her mother's declining mental capacity after having a brain tumor, "I understand the self to be both old and new, derived both from particles of one's earlier life and from other bits that might have come into being at just that very moment in the dusk."
Are we more ourselves when we are concentrating on our inner lives? Like when we fall in love? Busch thinks so and so do I. Just because we don't share everything about ourselves doesn't make it any less important as to who we are.
All and all a very thought provoking book as I'm always struggling to be less social and slightly more in tune with my own original thoughts. And that's no easy task. This book helps.
Querencia by Stephen Bodio
A book about wildness, dogs, hawks, living in a very small town in the New Mexico high country, community, landscape, hunting and odder subjects like cock fights. But it is also about love, real love, and of course death. Bodio is great observer of nature's nuanced changing. He writes with his eyes focused on reality and he, with his partner Betsy, live pure and on their own trajectory.
Querencia is a Spanish word that loosely translates as a place or position where you feel not only safe but strong. A sanctuary spot where you gain strength. It's a bull fighting term referring to the place in the ring where the bull feels most secure and powerful.
I've read this book at least five times. It's a treasure of beautiful writing.
Tortilla Flat John Steinbeck
Hysterical, sad, brave, luckless and destitute characters populate the poor neighborhood of the Flat. Danny and his friends live from one caper to the next causing mayhem and strife along the way. But they feel themselves instruments of good. They are always trying to do something nice for someone even when the manner of their plans contain elements of greed and mischief. They can always reason their way into a convoluted reason for their less than altruistic schemes.
Steinbeck is always aware of the semi-futile turnings of the human condition. He never wastes a word.
Correspondence 1927 - 1987 Joseph Campbell
I was excited to read this new book because for some reason Campbell has been on my mind these past few months. Perhaps because of a twist on my path. Campbell has always been a reliable guide durning life's upheavals.
So, I was quite disappointed to discover that most of the letters were to Mr. Campbell and not from him. And many of the ones from him were his comments on various books of his that were going to print. Stuff about editorial work and art layout. Rather dull and technical.
The too many letters from Ted Spivey and Signe Gartrell recounting their dreams of Campbell that bordered on hero worship were a bit much for me. Imploring that perhaps he should start his own religion struck me as particularly odd. For most of these letters there are no replies.
Also the many letters from Einar Pálsson, as interesting as they are, go on too long without responses from Campbell. Of course there are moments where Campbell's brilliance shines through but they are fewer than I expected. The many accolades when he received his doctorate were repetitive as were the condolence letters to his wife Jean when he passed away.
The highlight of the book, for me, was his speech at The Pratt Institute on the day of the doctorate ceremony. Pure Joseph!
So I pulled Pathways to Bliss off my shelf and read two essays called Personal Myth and The Self as Hero. Knowing I haven't been a hero lately I read Campbell's words with particular attention giving me the taste of his wisdom that I very much needed.
Spring by Ali Smith
The third of her seasonal novels. This one centers around the treatment of immigrants in England before Brexit. The characters are sketched brilliantly and Smith's sparse writing style is still full, packed full, of strange connections and relationships. It is a heartbreaking time, in the USA as well, for refugees. But there is a slight hope and a nascent resistance to the brutal way that they are treated. Smith's voice is timely and I consider her a brave writer. The problems she alludes to are real and current.
The young magical girl, Florence, is a fascinating creation. What will become of her I wonder. Smith catches the nuances of friendships with stark honesty.
The Other Americans by Laila Lalami
A wonderful novel about immigrants and the struggles they face as the result of both blatant and covert racism. A must read during this time of Trump when racism has become very much more out in the open. This I see and hear with my own eyes and ears.
This is a story of a hit and run which results in the death of an older man, both a husband and father. The main narrator is his youngest daughter, Nora, an aspiring composer. Alternate chapters are told though the eyes of other characters including the witness to the accident, the detective assigned to the case, another officer, Nora's mother and sister and even her late father. Almost all of the vignettes are tinged with instances of discrimination sometimes brutal and sometimes unintended because of plain old ignorance.
The relationships between the characters are complicated and sometimes strained. Love, loneliness, alienation and self worth are all themes. I stayed up late to finish this book and would hope that someday it will be required reading at the high school level. Magnificent writing.
In Love With The World by Yongay Mingyur Rinpoche with Helen Tworkov
Mingyur Rinpoche is a Tibetan Tulku and head of several Buddhist monasteries. He is famous and content except he has always wanted to take a wandering retreat of several years. A wandering retreat involves having no money, no home, begging for food and sleeping on the ground or in caves. (Not for me.) Mingyur Rinpoche does indeed sneak off alone, for the first time in his life, abandoning his attendants, his students and his family. He leaves a note and vanishes into the night finding a world he never imagined.
There is much Buddhist philosophy in this book. Long meditations on impermanence and dying. Which should never be far from our hearts and minds. I needed the refresher.
Other passages I found less enlightening. For example his ready willingness to expire (which we all crave to a certain extent) at such a young age with so much in front of him. I agree we should be ready for death at any moment but to openly invite it is bit much for me. Of course, I'm the unenlightened one here.
I'm also truly suspect of anyone who claims to know with even a dash of certainty what happens after we die. There is some amount of speculation in this book with paragraphs starting out, "According to the sacred texts..." And then proclaiming how the mind lives on. Some of this is white noise to me and I, for one, don't buy into it. And to his credit Mingyur Rinpoche also agrees that no one really knows.
Pertinent reminders for me;
"Emptiness doesn't mean nothing."
"The deepest bonds of attachment will be found in both aversion and attraction."
"Life occurs on an ocean of death."
The Land of Unkindness and The River Swimmer. Both novellas by Jim Harrison. I pulled this off the shelf to look for a quote and instantly got caught up in Harrison's giant voice. I often reread him to give my languor a shot of energy. And to remind myself of all the wonderful pleasures that add zest to a complicated and confusing world. He restores my stamina for grasping those things in life worth devouring including food and love, nature and wine, art and poetry, travel and self examination.
The quote: "It is a terrible thing when one's love far exceeds the other's."
And: "In periods of extreme loneliness we don't know a thing about life and death..."
Outside Looking In T. C. Boyle
A novel of some of the people involved with Timothy Leary at Harvard then Mexico then Millbrook NY. Like all of Boyle's books I read them in about two days because I can't put them down. Nobody writes like him. Not even close. His style is incredibly unique and this new book is as good as anything he's ever written. He does not overdo the acid trips nor does he glorify the scene Leary created. It is much more about the characters and how they negotiate their experiences. Leary is mostly in the background. Another Boyle masterpiece.
Solitude An Everyman Anthology of Poetry
I learned some new poems in this one and was reminded of some old favorites. New to me; Samuel Beckett, John Clare and Anna Akhmatova.
And a few great reminders; Robert Frost, (who I've been meaning to revisit for a while now) Mary Oliver, Czeslaw Milosz, and Shakespeare, who writes,
"But day doth daily draw my sorrows longer,
And night doth nightly make grief's strength seem stronger."
Independent People by Halldór Laxness.
A massive novel of Iceland. The sprawling saga of a sheep farmer, or crofter, Bjartur of Summerhouses and his sheep. But saying this is a book about sheep is like saying Moby Dick is a book about a whale. Bjartur is a man who wants nothing more than to owe no person and live free and independent no matter how hard he has to work. Is his land haunted? Do specters make an appearance? Yes, if you believe and no, if you don't. He fluctuates between absolute depressing poverty and then some small success and then back again. He's a hard stubborn man, perhaps even a fool.
His daughter, who is probably not his daughter, Asta Sollilja, is the one true flower in Bjartur's long life of struggle. But it takes him years to figure it out and acknowledge that one simple fact.
For such a basic subject full of depressing hardships there are still deep themes to be pondered and lived with. Love and Death, loyalty, family and community.
There are heavy lines like, "Few things are so inconsistent, so unstable, as a loving heart, and yet it is the only place in the world where one can find sympathy."
And, "..for the soul of a man has a liking for the incredible, but doubts the credible."
And, ".. for after all there are limits to the amount of Christian ethics that human nature can bear."
Someday, when time permits I will return to this book.
A Sumac Reader. Edited by Joseph Bednarik.
Poetry and short stories from a magazine from the late sixties started by Dan Gerber and Jim Harrison. Mostly a lot of shorter poems by poets I'm not familiar with. Wild nature is a prevalent theme that runs through many of them. And the zeitgeist of the sixties is apparent in some of the work. There are quite a few gems. It makes me want to track down old issues.
Wit's End by James Geary
Examples and stories about wit. Why should we be witty? The difference between wit and humor and why it's important. I laughed out loud a few times because interspersed between discourses are examples of clever comebacks and replies from history. He sites philosophers, royalty, Shakespeare and even the Marx Brothers. Geary is extremely clever and enjoyable to read. I'm going to seek out his other books.
Everything In Its Place Oliver Sacks
Essays mostly about Sacks' case studies. Fascinating and scary accounts of what can happen to the brain and consciousness. Sacks is a compassionate writer who I would want for my doctor if my mind started to unravel. (Always a fear) He is insightful, curious and committed both as a physician and a friend. He deeply cares. I've always admired his writing.
The essay on asylums is interesting as are some of his last pieces on gardens, gefilte fish and ginkgo trees. I want to go back and revisit his other books.
Autumn Light
Seasons of Fire and Farewells by Pico Iyer
Iyer spends his Autumns in Japan living simply and giving himself a break from his travels. He lives with his wife in a small apartment in a quiet neighborhood. He plays ping pong at a gym with an older group of people. And then he writes about age, decline, impermanence, beauty, death, family relationships, and letting go. He asks wonderful questions like, "How to hold on to the things we love even though we know that we and they are dying?"
He takes his walks to watch the leaves change and to watch people watch the autumn colors. He muses, "Dying is the art we have to master, it seems to say--not death; late love settles into us as spring romances never could."
Iyer is friends with the Dalai Llama and is able to spend a few days each fall with His Holiness when he passes through Japan. The chapter on his recent visit is full of wisdom. Wisdom Iyer clearly has absorbed over the years because his writings are full of it. I read that chapter twice.
This book was particularly poignant to me because I've always wanted to go to Japan and my yearly trips to the Berkshires in Autumn are an important part of my life. It's my favorite time of year and I, too, spend a great deal of time contemplating the beauty of that season that turns to decay so quickly.
I'm buying another copy of this book to keep at the house in Massachusetts so it's there when I return in October.
Iyer brilliantly writes, "and I could see how sadness often lasts longer than mere pleasure."
Conversations With Jim Harrison edited by Robert DeMott
This is an revised and updated version. I read the first one years ago but this collection brings us right up to Harrison's final interview. I have written elsewhere about how he inspires me to live a more active life both physically and intellectually. He is aware of how much there is to grasp in the short time we have on this earth. Harrison is endlessly quotable. His mind is always whirring. I always come away from reading him, whether it be his poetry or novels, his fiction or his interviews, with a renewed energy to struggle against whatever the world throws at me. I look at life with bigger eyes and a more open heart after putting down one of his books.
He says, "I think ideas are as real as trees." I hope mine are.
Read Jim Harrison.
How to Love the Universe by Stefan Klein.
A popular science book that is enjoyable to read. It doesn't go too deep but touches on many fascinating facts and theories. It's mind jarring to contemplate the size of the universe, the speed of light or coincidence. Professor Klein explains all this and more in easily understood prose. To ponder black holes and the expansion of the universe is to try to understand nature's mysteries. It makes me think of Lawrence Krause's term "cosmic humility." We should stand in awe when we gaze up at the night sky. Klein writes a bit about Boltzmann and entropy, one of my favorite subjects.
Henry Miller The Last Days
A Memoir by Barbara Kraft
Sad, poignant and brutally honest this brief book chronicles the time Kraft spent cooking and sharing dinners with Miller durning the last two years of his life. She writes about his final decline showing Miller at his most undignified. Not due to his personality but because of his physical body's diminishing capacities. Miller never despairs or complains. His answer to a question, "We must accept what comes, don't you know?" Pretty much sums up his determination to live out what short time he has left.
He also said that truth is respect. This is truthful book.
Little Boy by Lawrence Ferlinghetti
To call this a novel seems to neglect all the other things it is. There is some early autobiographical reminiscing at the beginning before Ferlinghetti becomes more poetic with a run-on stream of consciousness rap that engulfs everything from art and sex to the cosmos and nature. And so much more. He throws punctuation to the wind making thoughts and ideas blend into one another seamlessly. Ferlinghetti just turned one hundred and he is still truly a relevant voice. I had the pleasure of meeting him once up at the Ojai Poetry Festival. He was charming with a bit of mischief in his eyes. He is one of my favorite poets.
He writes: "A vision is not to be disregarded for without a vision to live by where are we after all and so and so by all means let us have visions...."
Conscious by Annaka Harris
A short book on what we know about what it's like to be aware. Written with excitement for her subject Harris keeps every chapter interesting and thought provoking. There is still much that science doesn't know about what flips on the switch of consciousness. Why does a rock or a tree which is made up of the same basic building materials as us not experience awareness? Or do they? Just on a level we can't measure.
Could consciousness be somehow built into the laws of physics? Some thing that infuses the universe?
I wish this book were longer.
The Adventures of Augie March by Saul Bellow
The book that cemented Bellows' reputation. His first big novel. We follow Augie from his boyhood where he grew up poor but sharp witted. He bounces around a few jobs, dabbles in petty crime, chases women, juggles family strife, has ups and downs financially, travels and all the while he is searching for the essence of who he is and what will make him great. Augie believes about himself (like I do) that he is vastly different from other people and is destined for something big. His world is open and he gravitates to bold characters. He likes life's finer things but also can live without them.
Bellow, as always, has a gift for description whether it be the city, or people or action or thought. He writes, "Let the necessity for the mystical great things of life, which, not satisfied, lives in us as the father of secret miseries, be fulfilled and have a chance to show it's not the devil himself."
Brilliantly, in another passage, he explains the uselessness of so much information that regularly overwhelms us. He writes, "Anything that just adds information that you can't use is dangerous." And he goes on to explain that there's too much of everything; culture, news, history, and asks who's to interpret it all?
But then I had to admit that this novel is overflowing and full of so much life. Is Bellow commenting on his own propensity to fill his pages with so many ideas that his own readers become bogged down? Is the joke on us?
Maybe so.
Letters to a Christian Nation Sam Harris
I read this every year or so just to help keep my arguments sharp. Harris is erudite and concise in this plea for reason.
The Overstory by Richard Powers
A massive book full of so much information that I never knew about trees. But saying this is a book about trees is like saying Moby Dick is just a book about whales.
The early part of the story is a series of chapters that make you wonder how Powers is going to connect them all. I started to think maybe he wasn't. But then he pulls so much together in such a majestic way that the mind spins. At turns he reminds me of Edward Abbey, TC Boyle, Rachel Carson and Wendell Berry. This novel has a grand scope and one of its missions is to remind us of how much we don't know, or don't think about, the interconnectedness of all the world's organisms. That we are part of something much bigger than what we see every day as we carry on with our lives. Powers asks the question, do trees need saving or do humans? The more I think about it I realize that it's humans. I suspect trees will be here long after we are gone. I hope so anyway.
Powers' characters are intricately composed. They are varied and full of life's many quirks and emotions. And their lives are big and raw, full of confusion and wonder, death and pain, compassion in the face of uncertainty, and love. Love for each other and love for what they can learn from Nature.
After finishing this book many images stuck with me; the complexity of a Redwood, the Gingko shedding all its leaves within minutes, the suicide tree that after twenty years blooms only once and then dies. And of course the saga of the Chestnut Tree. The greatest forest the world had ever seen decimated in a few short decades.
And the tree that when it is about to die flushes all its water and nutrients back into the soil to nourish others. Think about that.
This book has reawakened some of my long lost passions for Nature, solitude and contemplation. This is an important story as poignant and urgent as anything Abbey or Peacock or Mckibben ever wrote. We need this book. I will read it over and over.
The Monkey Wrench Gang and Hayduke Lives by Ed Abbey
I read these both when they first came out. It's the story of eco-warriors Doc Sarvis, Bonnie Abzug, Seldom Seen Smith and George Washington Hayduke. They cut down billboards, tear up survey stakes, pour sand in the gas tanks of bulldozers and derail coal trains all while dreaming about blowing up Glen Canyon Dam. In the first book Abbey started a movement. He turned countless people into defenders of Mother Earth. In the second book he carried his ideas even further while also chronicling the rise of Earth First!.
Abbey's characters can be one dimensional and thus predictable. Some of the slight misogyny and hints at racism have not aged well in the last forty and thirty years respectively. But Abbey was always bombastic and over the top. These are, after all, adventure stories. Though many kids took the lessons of protecting the southwest, and the planet, seriously. As they should have.
Abbey's prose when describing the beauty of the desert is when he is at his best. No one can match his passion and desire to keep the place he loves wild and untouched. He was a one-of-kind and when I think about it I wonder where are the Abbeys of today. He voice was so unique and prophetic. His words will always be at the pinnacle of that genre that he pretty much created.
Underland A Deep Time Journey by Robert MacFarlane
A very interesting book about what is underground. And not just the soil. But caves and rivers and lakes. Mines and graves and tunnels. Paris, for instance, has an entire shadow city beneath it complete with bunkers, old dwellings, classrooms and roads. MacFarlane explores all these and more. From the caves and sinkholes of Europe to what's beneath glaciers in Norway and Greenland. He splunks, crawls, repels and sleeps in many places deep under ground.
His meditations run as deep as his travels. When talking about trace fossils he found deep in a cave he mused, "We all carry trace fossils within us -- the marks that the dead and the missed leave behind. Sometimes, in fact, all that is left behind by loss is trace -- and sometimes empty volumes can be easier to hold in the heart than presence itself."
He writes of what's now happening in the Anthopocene and it's called solastalgia. And he quotes Glenn Albrecht who defines it as "a form of psychic or existential distress caused by environmental change".
The final chapter on the disposal of our nuclear wastes is sobering. How do we keep humanity safe from something that is deadly for 10,000 plus years. There are no satisfying answers. And contemplating the dilemma offers very little hope.
A fisherman and activist, Bjørnar, that MacFarlane spends time with offers this grace before meals, "Fuck! We don't know how lucky we are!"
Lost Connections by Johann Hari
A truly brilliant book. The best I can ever remember reading on grief and depression. There is much in this book that I already suspected. I knew from personal experience that sadness and grief can cause serious bouts of depression. And that our circumstances and living conditions contribute more to our dispositions than do the way our brains are constructed. Most of us are not hard wired for depression but are attacked by it from many outside forces such as loss of a loved one, feeling like our work is meaningless, unfulfilled desires, and most importantly having a lack of connection to others. The brutality of loneliness can be crippling.
Hari offers many solutions to help combat the fatigue of living with hopelessness. The one I've used with great success is turning toward nature and finding peace and solace in the wild world. It almost always works, for me anyway.
Hari continually stresses the importance of human relationships and having others close so we can explain ourselves to them. Our mental health depends on interactions with each other.
I came away from this book with many ideas and am already rereading several chapters. It can be a terrible struggle to find piece of mind and Hari helps point the way.
Blue Highways by William Least Heat-Moon
An absolute classic travel book. Heat-Moon drives a big circle around the United States looking at stuff and learning about small towns and out-of-the-way places. He loves diners and old buildings and old stories. The stories he gets from his conversations with people he meets along the road. He asks a lot of questions and makes friends almost everywhere he goes. He notices everything. He is humorous, friendly, inquisitive and serious. He starts his travels by saying, "A man who couldn't make things go right could at least go." And his adventure begins. He is suffering from a breakup and there is an underlying sadness to some of his thoughts. (If you pay attention to that kind of thing.) Overall a great view of an America that is now largely vanished.
Chances Are.... Richard Russo
Russo's books are about everything; friendship and love, parents and children, youth, longing and aging. This story is about three old college pals getting together forty years after graduation. The specter of a girl they all loved looms huge in their lives. The story of her disappearance unfolds with Russo's unique blending serious life situations and humorous reflections of chance and fate. I've said it before, Russo can make me laugh out loud and then two pages later I have tears in my eyes. He is a master of his craft and I always absorb something from his insights of human nature.
A wonderful quote;
"Because yank out one thread from the fabric of human destiny, and everything unravels. Though it could also be said that things have a tendency to unravel regardless."
Jayber Crow by Wendell Berry
This is one of Berry's longer stories about the people of Port William, Kentucky. Jayber is the town barber for thirty plus years. He hears of the stories and participates in a few of them. Mostly the life of Port William comes to his shop. It's a gathering place for the men of the rural farming community and Jayber reflects on everything you could imagine that happens in life. Most of the characters are recognized from other of Berry's books. He writes with a smoldering passion for a way of life that has pretty much faded away in this country. Berry’s respect for the farmers who populate his imagination is deep.
We read of the community's triumphs and also its great sorrows. Berry writes, "I don't believe grief passes away. It has its time and place forever. More time is added to it; it becomes a story within a story."
And later, one of the farmers, Mat Feltner, says, "The mercy of the world is you don't know what's going to happen."
The Memory of Old Jack by Wendell Berry
I go through periods where I don't get enough of Berry's elegant descriptions of small town life. He is the master. This is another Port William book. Jack Beechum is the last of a generation of farmers born in the 1800s. He lives in town now at the Port William Hotel. As his mind loses track of the present his memories of his long life flood into him. He reflects back to his life on his farm. He doesn't neglect his shortcomings or his failures. As always, Berry's heartfelt awareness of life's beauty and anguish are rendered in his compassionate prose. This book is a masterpiece that nobody but Wendell Berry could write.
Ghost Rider
Travels On The Healing Road by Neil Peart
Yes! That Neil Peart. This is a magnificent account of Peart's solo motorcycle rides through Canada, the States and South America. But this is so very much more than a travelogue. Peart endures an almost unbearable tragedy. He loses his daughter to a car crash and his wife to cancer all in less than a year. Naturally he is devastated and unsure of how to proceed with his life. His past passions, including being one of Rock's all time great drummers, mean nothing to him. He concludes he was another person before his heart was destroyed.
Fortunately he is strong and has a deep well of strength even though it's elusive at times. So he rides and rides and rides. He tries, and sometimes succeeds, to find beauty on his travels. He is lucky enough, and knows it, to be able to afford this luxury of solo travels. Over the course of a little over a year he rides about 55,000 miles. He writes to friends and family and some of his letters are brilliant reflections on grief and how to cope with insurmountable anguish. Peart has a subtle and expansive mind and his openness in sharing his pain is both generous and instructive. He wonders if, like he always had, he’d be able to trust life again.
Quichotte by Salman Rushdie
Rushdie never fails to make my mind wander into the great oddness of feelings and to experience thoughts that resonate with daily living. But somehow he touches deeper feelings and when I finish one of his unique books I walk around for days looking at the world, whether it be of politics or love or culture, with different and wider eyes.
This is a story within a story. An author is writing of a character, Quichotte, (Key-Shot) who resembles himself in many ways; they were both born in India, both have complicated families, both have estrangements. They deal with the strife in their lives similarly.
This is a book, like so much of Rushdie's body of work, that abounds in metaphor and allegory.
He writes, "..that the quantity of love available is far too small to satisfy the number of searchers."
And, "It was impossible, but the impossible was the only thing worth trying to do."
I keep looking around my neighborhood for the disintegration, holes tearing up the fabric of the cosmos, that happens to Quichotte in the author's novel within the novel. These days, when anything can happen, it seems possible.
For me all of Rushdie's books require more than one reading to grasp the enormity of his vision.
Year of the Monkey by Patti Smith
Patti! Another book of her dreams and meditations. Every page is poetic. Patti has tossed out moments of inspiration to me for forty years. I'm not sure what I love more, her albums or her books. Her prose here seems sparse but is anything but. She takes us on short journeys both inner and outer. She is a curious and penetrating observer. At seventy she is as brilliant and clear as ever.
This book takes place over the course of a year. She loses two loved ones and ponders her personal reactions without being maudlin or feeling sorry for herself. She doesn't come right out and say it but there is a joy to her movements. She lives raw and honestly.
She read my mind when she wrote, "I also wondered if the mundanity of my train of thought was hindering my progress."
And again, like I often do, she reflects on her "vertiginous heart".
Westernness A Meditation by Alan Williamson
Essays about the West including articles about Robinson Jeffers, Gary Snyder, Jane Hirshfield, Thomas Cole and Alfred Bierstadt, among others. Williamson obviously loves the wildness of spirit that produces the art of the oceans, mountains, and deserts. He writes with clarity and passion and has a solid understanding of his subjects.
The Scientific Attitude by Lee McIntyre.
An explanation of the scientific method and process. Dry at first and very textbook in style. There are, however, some really interesting chapters on the damage that faulty, fraudulent and pseudo science can cause. Examples sited are the anti vaccination studies and climate change deniers. Both have done great harm already. Children are dying from diseases that were eradicated. And in the case of global warming it's entirely possible that humanity could be wiped out because of our hubris. (Steven Hawking believed it.)
Overall a good book
Sleep of Memory by Patrick Modiano.
The author looks back fifty years to a few women he knew when he was a young man in Paris. His recollections are sketchy. He is unsure of some details and clearer on others. He writes; "No doubt, as the years pass, you end up shedding all the weights you dragged behind you , and all the regrets."
Personally I'm not so sure about the regrets. This book is sparse. I'm going to check out some of his other work. I enjoyed the style and atmosphere.
Avid Reader
A Life by Robert Gottlieb.
Adventures in the publishing world. Gottlieb describes his career working with great writers like Joseph Heller, Dorris Lessing, Bill Clinton and Nora Ephron. Gottlieb is an entertaining storyteller and fluent writer himself. He's funny and slightly self deprecating. He underplays his massive contributions to book publishing during the last sixty years. His infectious passions led me back to some favorite books of mine that he was involved with. Specifically, Heller.
He writes of his tendency to read every book on a subject he finds interesting saying, "To know anything you have to know everything." Makes complete sense to me.
Striving Towards Being
The Letters of Thomas Merton and Czeslaw Milosz
I've read more Milosz over the years than I have Merton. I've started The Seven Storey Mountain a few times but was never in the mood. Most religious writing, to my ears, is white noise. There's only so much nonsense I can take. This collection of letters, however, are serious meditations on the Catholic Church and what it means to practice. Both men question the dogma of the church and worship and pray in their own ways. Both are mindful of a higher power.
Merton writes beautify of hope. Milosz of struggles with his faith. Both men are eloquent.
I was inspired enough to reread some of my favorite poems of Czeslaw's.
Such as: "There is no end to being born, and I, if allowed to continue to live, would sink again and again, dazzled by wonder and desire."
Auguries of Innocence by Patti Smith.
All things Patti are remarkable in their own way. I reread this collection of poems after finding it in my small library in Massachusetts. It is full of jewels. At times visceral and at others tender and often both at once. After reading some poems by my father’s grave I brought the book back to California with me so I could be closer to it.
"Beauty alone is not immortal.
It is the response, a language of cyphers,
notes, and strokes riding off on a cloud charger--
the bruised humps of magnificent whales."
Visions from San Francisco Bay by Czeslaw Milosz.
This is a book about the West but also thoughts about America as viewed by Milosz's immigrant eyes. He is an astute observer and has a sharp comprehension of how life in this country was playing out in the turmoil of the 1960's. He is sympathetic to the different movements from his position at Berkeley. But he is also realistic in his critiques of exactly what the future might entail.
His chapters on Jeffers and Miller are informative and interesting.
He writes about religion's waning influence and science chipping away at the church's strength. He is as erudite as Hitchens or Harris. Milosz has always been one of my favorite poets and in his prose his elegance shines equally poetic. His self analysis is honest and open.
The chapter I, Motor, Earth is worth the price of the book.
He writes, "I am, thus, frankly pessimistic in appraising life, for it is chiefly composed of pain and the fear of death, and it seems to me that a man who has succeeded in living a day without physical suffering should consider himself perfectly happy."
How To Be Free Epicietus
Translated by A. A. Long
Also called The Encheiridion. The first line pretty much sums up the entire discourse. “Some things in the world are up to us, others are not.”
We’re responsible for figuring out those things we have control over and then not to be stressed about those events that are beyond our ability to change. Once we understand that, argues Epicietus, life will be much simpler and more enjoyable. We just have to practice what the Buddhists would call non-attachment and then fewer situations will have an adverse effect on our dispositions. We will see life with more clarity.
He writes, “Don’t ever describe yourself as a philosopher or talk much among ordinary people about your philosophical principles; simply do what the principles proscribe.”
And, “Everything everywhere is perishable and vulnerable. If you get attached to some of them even a little, you are bound to be troubled and discouraged, a prey to anxiety and stress.”
Overall a delightful book full of wisdom almost 2000 years old.
Collected Poems by Robert Bly
Certainly one of my favorite poets. I’ve seen him read three times. Twice at the sold out Arlington Theater and once up in Ojai at the Libby Bowl. His is a unique voice. His work is so packed with metaphor that I really have to sit with his poems and just let the rich images wash over me. Much as I do with Neruda. Bly is very much a midwestern poet. A poet of farms and family and nature’s ways.
“When your privacy is being over,
how beautiful the things are that you did not notice before.”
“Every day I did not spend in solitude was wasted.”
“There are woman we love whom we will never see again.
They are chestnuts shining in the rain.”
I should just start right back at the beginning and reread every poem. Someday for sure.
Journeying by Claudio Magris
A collection a travel essays by the Italian Professor and writer. Most of the pieces take place in Eastern Europe. Although not all. Magris has a wonderful way of looking at the world. He sees much that I most likely wouldn’t notice. He has a keen ear and eye for histories both short and long. He travels with a sense purpose and a desire to learn. He talks to people everywhere his interests are wide. Magris knows that travel also touches something in us and satisfies a part of our being that can not be sated in any other way.
A Beginner’s Guide to Japan by Pico Iyer
Another great book by Iyer. This is a collection of short paragraphs describing his reflections of Japan after living there part time for over thirty years. And so much still remains slightly mysterious to him. But he views so much with wonder and appreciation. And he sincerely loves his part-time adopted home. He quotes philosopher Takeshi Umehara who says, “..to see that everything is eternal and ephemeral at the same time.”
And then he writes about the artist Hokusai who lived in over ninety different places and used over thirty different pen names but for his entire life he never stopped painting Mount Fuji.
Iyer writes, “Words only separate what silence brings together.”
The Pearl Steinbeck
Haven’t read this one since high school and it’s as good as I remember it. The lesson? There are a few. Good fortune is not always good. Evil lurks where you least expect it. Be careful when you try to alter your station in life, and enduring unbearable pain might be possible. All grand and reoccurring themes of Steinbeck’s. I’ll be rereading his works until I die.
Outgrowing God by Richard Dawkins
Another wonderful book by Professor Dawkins, this one written for a younger audience. He clearly and simply explains the folly of following any one of the thousands of gods that have been worshiped throughout history. His chapters on evolution are clear and concise. He explains how myths can start and why people believe in them. He writes about why certain bible stories could not possibly be true and then shows us how it is indeed not only possible but imperative that we can be good without god. These are all themes he has presented before and I’ve been lucky enough to see him explain them in person. Dawkins is a tireless defender of science and reason and he is needed now more than ever in these times of growing ignorance. Especially here in the United States. Read this book!
Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead by Olga Tokarczuk
A strange novel about some hunters in rural Poland being murdered. An eccentric teacher and astrologer, Mrs. Duszejko, suspects that animals, most likely deer, are committing the crimes. It’s a ludicrous theory as are her astrological readings. But she is an independent woman and a serious thinker with other theories, some not so crazy at all. But most of the nearby town look at her as batty. She has Ailments that make her sick and weak and she often ponders the winding down of not only her health but her house and her car. Everything wears down with time. She see the decay of both the physical world and modern culture.
She deeply mourns the plight of animals. Their senseless deaths devastate her.
Tokarczuk writes with solid purpose and a naturalist’s eye for beauty. The struggles of Mrs. Duszejko teeter on disaster which she barely manages to escape. I’m looking forward to reading more by this interesting author.
Here’s a great paragraph;
“I have a theory. It’s that an awful thing has happened — our cerebellum has not been correctly connected to our brain. This could be the worst mistake in our programing. Someone has made us badly. This is why our model ought to be replaced. If our cerebellum were connected to our brain, we would possess full knowledge of our own anatomy, of what was happening inside our bodies. Oh, we’d say to ourselves, the level of potassium in my blood has fallen. My third cervical vertebra is feeling tension. My blood pressure is low today, I must move about, and yesterday’s egg mayonnaise has sent my cholesterol level too high, so I must watch what I eat today.”
Billy Budd in the Breadbox
The Story of Herman Melville and Eleanor
By Jana Laiz
The story is told by Eleanor, Melville’s granddaughter. She wants to learn all about him. She loves him and he fascinates her. She’s a smart inquisitive girl who thinks her grandfather has a secret. And he does! This is a kid’s book and I can see myself giving it to Annabella and Amon and Juliette. It’s gracefully written with a nod to history. As a Melville admirer I thoroughly enjoyed it.
Cherish
New and Selected Poems by Steve Kowit
Kowit is many things in these poems; a draft resister, a lover of woman and animals, an aging hippy and a fine thinker. He has a far reaching voice that encompasses his backyard to his many travels. He writes;
….
for the eleven millionth time I vowed
to change my life.
A mist came up, the night settled in about me
& I dreamed sweetly of all that I will never become—
women, wisdom, poetry & revolution
disappearing in the purr of the engine & the moan
of the road, & the song of the radio.
Ahab’s Rolling Sea
A Natural History of Moby-Dick by Richard J. King
A splendid book! King looks at what we knew about the ocean in Melville’s time and takes us right up to present day research. The book has a great scope following Ishmael almost chapter by chapter and analyzing his knowledge. Melville, of course, was a great student of the oceans including, besides sperm whales, right whales, dolphins, sharks, birds, seals, plankton, corals and squids. To name just a smattering of his subjects. King is also a fine observer and lover of the sea and it shows in his passionate writing. I found this book full of wonderful facts and history. I can imagine Herman enjoying it as much as I did!
Romance of the Grail
The Magic and Mystery of Arthurian Myth by Joseph Campbell
Some of Campbell’s lectures on the quest for the Holy Grail. As always he is erudite, inspiring and extremely entraining. Campbell’s grasp of world mythologies and literature is mind blowing. He is the consummate scholar. I always get up from reading him feeling smarter and more aware of the world around me. I know that I am part of something bigger than myself even if I’ll never completely understand what that might be. Somehow Campbell connects us to the universe. He says;
“One might ask why anyone should quest for the Grail in the twelfth century when anywhere you turned was a little church where the Mass was celebrated every morning, with Christ himself on the alter and with you there to receive communion. The answer is the priest was ordained by a sacrament and that anybody who simply follows the routine rituals is eligible to receive the host and made eligible for heaven by making good confession and proper contrition and all that. What has this got to do with the development of character? What has this got to do with the integrity of your life? What has this got to do with bringing forth the potentialities and rendering them glorious in the world? Nothing.”
Kokoro by Natsume Soseki
Kokoro is a Japanese word that means “the heart of things.” It’s a sparse story about two men. A younger student and an older man of relative leisure. The older man has a deep sadness about an event that occurred in his young life that makes him reclusive and stoic. His story is a long time coming and is explained finally in a very detailed letter. The letter touches on many subjects; heartache, jealousy, love, anger and loneliness. Near the letter’s conclusion Sensei, the older man, writes, “But who are we to judge the needs of another man’s heart?”
