I cannot say how much I loved this quirky book. Arnold Bennett captures a London neighborhood in the midst of incredible change post-WWI, by focusing I cannot say how much I loved this quirky book. Arnold Bennett captures a London neighborhood in the midst of incredible change post-WWI, by focusing on one little unlikely family, Henry and Violet Earlforward and their servant Elsie. The Earlforwards probably never should have married late in life, as they did, because the marriage ends up the death of them, quite literally. Henry cannot yield his household control, and despite the fact she’d already been married once and an independent businesswoman in widowhood, Violet feels she must defer to her husband’s tyrannical ways. Elsie becomes the mediator between them, making peace when she can, but still nurturing her own dreams for her future. Bennett’s book expresses the opening of opportunities for women and a new middle class in England, as well as the dislocations that result. He’s an astute observer of people, and even the minor characters are rich and idiosyncratic. Fascinating study of people under pressure of their own making. ...more
This book just wasn’t my cup of tea. Compiled from scattered writing by Russian poet Marina Tsvetaeva, the book really lacks any kind of a throughlineThis book just wasn’t my cup of tea. Compiled from scattered writing by Russian poet Marina Tsvetaeva, the book really lacks any kind of a throughline to anchor her story. There is some inspired writing here and her descriptions of searching out food for her children during the Russian Revolution is unforgettable. But the book also would have benefited from more frequent notes to explain the various historical characters and events. Doing my own research as I read became extremely cumbersome and distracting. ...more
I listened to this one as an audiobook and found it fascinating but hard to hear. Reilly reported on Jan. 6 insurrectionists for NBC, so the book is iI listened to this one as an audiobook and found it fascinating but hard to hear. Reilly reported on Jan. 6 insurrectionists for NBC, so the book is intensively researched, but a bit slow getting started; I’m not sure we needed the incident itself recapped in excruciating detail again. The significance of Reilly’s reporting is in the story of those armchair investigators who tracked down the identities of the rioters—those who didn’t announce their names over a bullhorn or cut commercials for their realty businesses, that is—using film footage, social media, and fake Bumblebee accounts (too funny). Incidentally, the book offers some concerning takeaways that haven’t yet been addressed. One was the unforgivable unpreparedness of the FBI and other federal law enforcement agencies to take action on intelligence *before* Jan. 6, which may relate in part to the second takeaway: the sympathy of some in law enforcement for those willing to take law into their own hands. Finally, the absolute lack of seriousness of many of the rioters whose interest in fucking things up would be trivial and laughable if not for their willingness to use violence to do it when surrounded by the protection of a mob. Many of those shouting “1776” at the Capitol couldn’t articulate any other reason beyond “Donald Trump told me to,” and when challenged by prosecution quickly blamed the incident on antifa or claimed they were misled or benighted. Reilly’s reporting allows the reader to see these frauds in all their glory; one that sticks out in my mind was the FBI employee who had changed his gender identification on his official paperwork for no other reason than to confuse and ridicule his own organization. People like this, with no respect for institutions or themselves, will make this country unlivable for a generation. ...more
Teffi’s ‘Memories’ captures the universal experiences of refugees: the uncertainty, the rumors, the panic, but also resilience, as people flee to safeTeffi’s ‘Memories’ captures the universal experiences of refugees: the uncertainty, the rumors, the panic, but also resilience, as people flee to safety while holding on to hope that they will return to the lives they have always known. In 1917 poet and playwright Teffi fled the political chaos after the Russian Revolution political chaos; she enjoyed some renown in Moscow, which helped her as she “slid down the map” from Moscow to the Crimean port city of Novorossisk, and finally on to Constantinople (and, ultimately, Paris). Along the way she shares the stories of other refugees—humorous and sad—none of whom knew where to settle and when. “My memories…are still being whirled about by a stifling whirlwind—just as scraps of this and splinters of that…just as people themselves were whirled this way and that way, left and right, over the mountains or into the sea,” she writes. “Soulless and mindless, with the cruelty of an elemental force, this whirlwind determined our fate” (204). Beautifully written and sometimes surreal....more
A strange book: not a whodunnit, or even a howdunnit or whydunnit. Adam Penhallow of Trevellin is a tyrant of a family patriarch, one who derails his A strange book: not a whodunnit, or even a howdunnit or whydunnit. Adam Penhallow of Trevellin is a tyrant of a family patriarch, one who derails his adult children’s plans and independence by insisting they be clustered around him in the family’s Cornish mansion forever. Georgette Heyer spends the first 3/4 of the book detailing Penhallow’s bullying, his drunken rages, and his manipulations, and she is creative in describing his outsized—even Shakespearean—personality. “The robust and generally unthinking brutality of his maturity was changing to a deliberate, if irrational, cruelty, which seemed often to be as purposeless as it was ruthless,” she writes. “From having exercised his power over his dependents to force them to conform to that way of life which suited himself, he was now showing alarming signs of exercising an arbitrary tyranny for the sheer love of it” (121). His second wife, Faith, is nearly driven to madness and his many sons are pitted against one another by his machinations. When someone in desperation finally murders the old man, surprisingly no one is released from their miserable lives at Trevellin. This family is not necessarily one you can enjoy spending time with; the interest is in unwinding the madness that one tyrant can wreak. ...more
Not my favorite of this series. Four friends drinking in a pub decide to test the local haunted house—and their belief in the “toll” it exacts”—by staNot my favorite of this series. Four friends drinking in a pub decide to test the local haunted house—and their belief in the “toll” it exacts”—by staying overnight. Much of the potential of this story is left on the table: thin characters, underdeveloped plot, and an under-described haunted house. ...more
Andrew Caldecott takes a jaundiced view of intellectual priests in this short story of demonic possession. Rev. Nigel Tylethorpe takes an unhealthy inAndrew Caldecott takes a jaundiced view of intellectual priests in this short story of demonic possession. Rev. Nigel Tylethorpe takes an unhealthy interest in the life and studies of an earlier occupant of Tilchington Rectory, an obsession that soon takes over his services and then his life. I thoroughly enjoyed the description of the rectory itself, with its secret room and lovely gardens, as well as the slow takeover of Tylethorpe’s life. Side benefit: these little books are reviving my interest in short stories, a devilish form to write well. ...more
John Maryland inherits a white elephant of a house surrounded by a field of poppies. He doesn’t want to keep it, yet he is inexplicably drawn in. WillJohn Maryland inherits a white elephant of a house surrounded by a field of poppies. He doesn’t want to keep it, yet he is inexplicably drawn in. Will he ever get out? ...more
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