What Are You Reading

The disease of theory: "Crime & Punishment" at 150, Gary Saul Morson, The New Criterion; May 2016

A review of Dostoyevsky's analysis of conflicted human nature and mercurial morality.

Harp said:

The disease of theory: "Crime & Punishment" at 150, Gary Saul Morson, The New Criterion; May 2016

A review of Dostoyevsky's analysis of conflicted human nature and mercurial morality.

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Wow. I suppose you wouldn't put that in the category of "light reading."

"The High Hard One," by Kirby Higbe and Martin Quigley.

This is one of the most fascinating autobiographies you'll ever read -- a no-holds-barred look at what it was like to be a ballplayer in the 1930s and 1940s, written by one of the most hard-nosed pitchers in the National League during that period. Higbe was a hell-raising Alabama kid with a sixth-grade education and nothing much going for him but a strong right arm, who climbed the ladder of minor-league ball before making the majors with the Cubs in 1937. He had his best years with the Dodgers in the 1940's, and it's these years that prove the most remarkable -- the team trained in Cuba in these years, and Higbe became a close friend and boozing and brawling companion of none other than Ernest Hemingway, "ole Ernest," as Higbe calls him.

Higbe is an utterly un-self-conscious narrator -- he says whatever pops into his head, and is absolutely sincere about it, to the point where you figure he must have escaped from a Ring Lardner short story. His absolute candor about the drinking, brawling, and night-crawling habits of his generation proves that Jim Bouton wasn't the first ballplayer/author to repudiate the wholesome Bazooka bubble gum image of the professional athlete.

Higbe is probably best remembered today as one of the small hard core of Southern players who opposed Jackie Robinson's addition to the Dodger roster in 1947, and he devotes a chapter to that affair. While he acknowledges that he opposed Robinson because of his "Southern principles," he also acknowledges his skill as an athlete and his character as a man -- suggesting that, like a lot of his contemporaries, the experience might just have changed him for the better.

Despite his character flaws, it's impossible not to like the guy -- even though it's obvious on every page that he's his own worst enemy. In other words, Dostoyevsky would've had a field day with Ol' Hig.

AmateisGal said:

Wow. I suppose you wouldn't put that in the category of "light reading."

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No, Dostoyevsky is a complication and recalls Churchill's Russian summary, "an enigma inside a mystery, wrapped by a riddle." Russia's extraordinary literary canon is spellbinding.

I am nearly finished with yet another reread of "40 Miles a Day on Beans and Hay", a historical account of the enlisted men who served during the Indian Campaigns of the middle and late 19th century. Absolutely fantastic, the detail collected, often in the words of these men. It is the quintessential book for anyone seeking insights into the era. For myself, it is a guide to the historic interpretation I take part in at the local National Park.

With that I've also taken up reading so me Kipling. Several years ago I purchased a collection of Kiplings horror and fantasy stories, namely for the fact that the book contained "The Man Who Would Be King"; a favorite of mine. I never really developed a strong appreciation for Kipling before, most likely due to a lack of experience with his writing, however, now I find myself thirsting for more.

Finished Midnight in Berlin by James MacManus. A ton of historical detail in it - almost derailed the story. But still a good read.

Now I need to decide which novel to read next. It's always a tough choice...

I've been reading "The Long Weekend: Life in the English Country House 1918-1939" by Adrian Tinniswood. It was an Amazon recommendation and kind of an on-line impulse purchase. About a third of the way in and I'd say it's uneven. The Amazon description makes it sound as if it will focus on the social and economic changes impacting the sustainability of the English Country House (think "Downton Abbey" not a small, little house to escape from the city on weekends).

The first few chapters kicked off in the right direction showing how the houses were adjusting to both the cultural changes (less formality) and economic changes (the declining agricultural revenue and increasing labor costs) of the inter-war years, but the more recent chapters have been summaries of who bought such and such manor house, why and how they renovated and financed it. Since there is no explanation as to why one house or another is discussed and they aren't actively tied to the overall narrative, the stories just float by as disassociated information - and with few pictures, they are blending together in my mind.

Hopefully the book will veer back toward the broader changes. We'll see.

AmateisGal said:

Now I need to decide which novel to read next. It's always a tough choice...

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Brooklyn by Colm Toibin is next, then Anne Bronte's The Tenant of Wildfell Hall which is a Wall Street Journal recommendation.
IF Stone's The War Years 1939-45 is newspaper journalism- a seldom seen rarity nowadays- at its finest.

Harp said:

Brooklyn by Colm Toibin is next, then Anne Bronte's The Tenant of Wildfell Hall which is a Wall street Journal recommendation.
IF Stone's The War Years 1939-45 is newspaper journalism- a seldom seen rarity nowadays- at its finest.

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Somewhere back in this thread I wrote a review of "Brooklyn," if you care, but the quick and dirty is that, IMHO, it is a nice, sweet book that doesn't break ground but does a nice job with the immigrant-comes-to-a-strange-land story - in this case, the immigrant is a young woman from Ireland and the strange land is Brooklyn in the 1950s. Not challenging, but comfortable - sometimes that fits the bill. Enjoy.

Fading Fast said:

... and the strange land is Brooklyn in the 1950s.

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My clan left Ireland for Brooklyn and hence to Chicago, so I have some skin in the game.

Harp said:

My clan left Ireland for Brooklyn and hence to Chicago, so I have some skin in the game.

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Fantastic, I look forward to hearing your impressions based on family history versus the presentation in "Brooklyn." After you have read it, you might want to check out the movie. It does a reasonably good job capturing the vibe of the book, but as almost always, the book brings a lot more to the story.

I went to Barnes and Noble last night and picked up a few novels. My goal is to buy a new book at least once a month to support authors. So I bought a nice, fluffy one (because after reading a lot of WW2 fiction, you need something fluffy once in awhile!), and The Plum Tree by Ellen Marie Wiseman.

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-plum-tree-ellen-marie-wiseman/1110623664

So I'm trying to decide between those two or The Tsarina's Legacy which is about Catherine the Great.

Oh yes - and still reading Goodbye, Darkness: A Memoir of the Pacific. Such a gripping read.

"Russia In The Microphone Age: A History of Soviet Radio 1919-1970," by Stephen Lovell.

While a lot's been written in the West over the years about Soviet radio propaganda broadcasting in the Cold War era, this is, astonishingly, the first and only English-language study of civilian broadcasting in the USSR. And it's a very interesting look at what the Soviet people actually heard, based on the contents of Soviet archives and the memories of those who listened, rather than what we think they heard.

The Soviets were very interesting in broadcasting, not just as a propaganda tool, but as an art form -- and were very interested in the potential of radio drama, with a lot of innovative, experimental techniques in use as far back as the twenties. The Soviet broadcasting authorities went so far as to give broadcasters free rein to broadcast any live theatrical production they wanted, direct from the stage, with no further permission or clearance required -- but broadcasters soon learned, as broadcasters in the West were learning, that stage technique was not appropriate for radio drama. Experimentation was strongly encouraged thruout the 1930s, similar to the experiments of the Columbia Workshop and Arch Oboler in the US.

What's most interesting to me personally is the presence of a strong tradition of satirical comedy in Soviet radio. That's about the last image Westerners would have of Stalin-Era Russia, but from the 1930s onward, Soviet authorities not only allowed, but evidently encouraged satires of the everyday bureaucracy of everyday life. The tone of these satires seems to parallel the sort of work Fred Allen was permitted by network and advertising agency censors to perform on American radio around the same time -- gentle burlesques which pointed up everyday absurdities of life, but never aggressively critical of the existing system. This type of satire remained popular in the USSR well into the 1950s and 1960s.

Likewise, you don't imagine swing music as a soundtrack to 1930s everyday Soviet life, but Lovell reports that, bowing to popular demand, broadcasting authorites eased restrictions on "vulgar" musical content by the mid-1930s, leading to what he terms a "Red Jazz Age," especially in the urban centers of the nation, during those years.

Very little survives of Soviet Era radio, either in the form of recordings or scripts. Most of the prewar archive was destroyed during the war, and much postwar material has simply been lost. Lovell has done a tremendous job documenting what remains and reconstructing from available sources what's missing. This makes for fascinating reading on a subject about which Westerners have, up till now, known absolutely nothing.

AmateisGal said:

Now I need to decide which novel to read next. It's always a tough choice...

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Always!

Another James Crumley novel, Dancing Bear.

Just finished "Moby-Dick" yesterday, now I'm moving on to rereading "The Jungle".

Just finished Raymond Chandlers "Farewell, My Lovely."
It was brilliant. Chandler is a genius. Love his work and I'm never disappointed with it. His descriptions and characters are incredible. Truly.

PeterB said:

The Big Knockover, by Dashiel Hammet. Just finished rereading some Chandler, Trouble is my Business.

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Dashiel Hammet is amazing.

Amanda Vaill, Hotel Florida

A brutal, magnificently researched historical narrative of three couples: Ernest Hemingway and Martha Gellhorn; Robert Capa and Gerda Taro; and Arturo Barea and Ilsa Kulcsar
whose lives briefly converge amidst the Spanish Civil War. Although scholarly and objective to a fault, Vaill's evident bias against Hemingway and her deliberate vicarious use
of Barea's similar prejudice introduces subjective error to an otherwise admirable literary work.

Harp said:

Amanda Vaill, Hotel Florida

A brutal, magnificently researched historical narrative of three couples: Ernest Hemingway and Martha Gellhorn; Robert Capa and Gerda Taro; and Arturo Barea and Ilsa Kulcsar
whose lives briefly converge amidst the Spanish Civil War. Although scholarly and objective to a fault, Vaill's evident bias against Hemingway and her deliberate vicarious use
of Barea's similar prejudice introduces subjective error to an otherwise admirable literary work.

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This sounds fascinating.