Kate Keeps on part 2

Books completed in September
James - Percival Everett - 4.5
Radetsky March - Joseph’s Roth - 4.5
Job, the Story of a Simple Man - Joseph Roth - 4.5 stars
Right and Left: The Legend of the Holy Drinker Joseph Roth 4.5 stars

Books completed in August
A Cage Went in Search of a Bird - Reviewed
Enemies, a Love Story by Isaac B Singer - Reviewed
The Safekeep by Yael van der Wouden - Reviewed
Held by Anne Michaels - Reviewed

Books completed in July
The Slaughterman’s Daughter by Yaniv Iczkovits - Reviewed
Dog Island by Philippe Claudel - Reviewed
The Death of Methuselah by Isaac B Singer - 4 stars
The Door by Magda Szabo - 4 stars

I do not expect the number of books I’ll read in July will reach the number I read in any of the first six months of 2024; see the list here.

Looking back I’m surprised I read so many. A few stand out, and these are not necessarily those with the highest number of stars. They are ones that made an impact in terms of sheer enjoyment and/or increased my knowledge of other cultures.

— Estuary (for the character of Mr Kumarasurar, a man I could love. Note:available free for Audible subscribers)
— The Woman from Uruguay (by far the funniest book I’ve read in many years)
— Homeland (for an objective questioning of the validity of the concept)
— The Trees (for its brilliant satire exposing the true depth of racism in America)

I hope to review my July books listed above shortly. They were both excellent reads.

—- edited for typos

>1 kjuliff: You might not be reading many books but these two look especially good to me. Hang in there, you are valued a lot.

I read his lady to a fox and mosier lin and his child and loved them, this one looks like another good one!

Enough Already

The Slaughterman's Daughter
By Yaniv Iczkovits
Translated by Orr Scharf
Read by Tovah Feldshuh
Length: 17 hrs and 53 mins

The story starts in the shtetl of Motal in Pale. For readers unfamiliar with the life of Ashkenazi Jews and Russia in the late 19th century, parts of The Slaughterman’s Daughter may seem confusing at first. But in that case, you’ll quickly work it out as you join Mende and Zizek and The Matchstick on their journey from Motal to Minsk and back in the late 19th century Pale.

Zvi-Mei, Mende’s husband has done the unthinkable for the tight-knit community of Motel. He’s run away and no one knows where he is or why left. And if that’s not enough, Mende’s sister Fanny has also left her spouse and their three children at two minutes past midnight, crossing the Yazelda river which divides Motal from the lands of the gentiles with the help of the mute ferryman Zizek, an ex-soldier of the Czar’s army.

In case the gentiles among you may be thinking you’ll never get used to the names and terminology, you will. Plus you’ll be helped along by the occasional use of nicknames. Such as “The Matchstick”, the emaciated cantor who cannot sing. The Matchstick earns his money from donations made by those unlucky enough to hear him singing and who pay for him to stop.

The story follows the journey of Fanny and Zizel who are traveling from Motal to Minsk in search of Mende’s Zvi-Mei. Unfortunately no one back in Motel knows Fanny’s motive for leaving, so the scandals of the families of Zvi-Mei and Fanny remain the talk of the town for many days. “Who leaves their husband at two minutes after midnight?” the shtetl gossips ask of Fanny.

The journey from Motal to Minsk takes many days as the mode of travel is horse and cart. And although there’s not much in the way of conversation, Zizek being mute, things get lively along the way and there are many adventures as Mende and Zizek meet and largely overcome inevitable obstacles.

Fanny is forced to kill several gentile bandits and thus becomes a wanted woman. After she and the ferryman flee from the scene of the slaughter, they pick up a few fellow travelers, one of which is The Matchstick. They manage to hide out in safe-houses and at times they are forced to camp. During his time in one of the hiding places, The Matchstick takes a wife. She consists of two planks of wood connected by a piece of tattered fabric. His love for Olga is deep and true. It lasts throughout the trip to Minsk, and back.

Being as it’s during the time of the Russian Czar, there’s the Imperial Army, the rebel army, and Russian Secret Police, as well as local administrations both Jewish and gentile. Throw them all into the pot and you have some story.

It’s a story well-told. Life in the shtetl of Motel is exquisitely described. The reader can imagine the market square and the various stall-holders. The daily life of the people of Motal comes to life and it is as if we are watching a picture being painted of a time past. Knowing from our vantage point what would happen fifty years on to the people of shtetls such as Motal adds to our feelings for these fellow humans who lived not so long ago.

It’s a book full of irony, humor, adventure and a deep look in a light-heated way, at the human condition.

I highly recommend this book.

— Edited to correct the inconsistency of my spelling of “Motal”

Note, I’ve used the spelling used by the translator (Hebrew to English).

Motol (Belarusian: Моталь, Russian and West Polesian: Мотоль, Polish: Motol, Yiddish: מאָטעלע Motele), also Motal, is a township in Ivanava Raion of Brest Region located about 30 kilometres west of Pinsk on the Yaselda River in Belarus. - Wikipedia

>5 kjuliff: How did you come across this book, Kate? It sounds like one I might like.

>6 labfs39: I noticed it in an interesting library of an interesting LT member I think. Not exactly sure now, but it was through him, Gypsy_Boy who has some excellent reviews in Reading Globally.

I do think you’d like it; I certainly did.

>7 kjuliff: Gypsy_Boy is an excellent source for both interesting books and conversation. I've been seeing him around the threads periodically for years. Since becoming admin here, I haven't spent as much time on Reading Globally. Our last conversation was about Slovenian books.

A Volcanic Constellation

Dog Island
By Philippe Claudel
Translated by Euan Cameron
Read by: Nicholas Guy Smith
Length: 6 hrs and 7 mins
Rating: 4.5

Seven people discover the washed-up bodies of three black men on the shores of a dog-shaped island in the southern Mediterranean.

In the centre of the island is a semi-dormant volcano which gushes out putrid fumes when it’s angry. It’s like a god, warning the humans on the island of their wrong-doing, and embodying the ever-present menace that is the book’s background atmosphere.

Of the seven people who discovered the bodies only four are significan in this parable of the heartlessness of humanity. The three insignificant islanders are an elderly woman who first notices the bodies - the observer, and the workers - two nondescripts who do the work of hiding the bodies under the direction of the other four.

The four are the island’s mayor, priest, doctor and school teacher. Why do they need to hide the bodies? It’s a matter of self-interest for all but the teacher, who objects both to the bodies being hidden, and to the inhumane method by which they are disposed.

The teacher decides to find out where the three black men came from, and why they died. He’s met with opposition from the mayor, the doctor and the priest. When he persists he’s the subject of vilification, and false information is spread about him. The volcano’s activity accelerates.

After being falsely accused of rape, teacher is imprisoned by the mayor and dies in custody as a result of neglect. The volcano rumbles.

The teacher’s wife and children leave the island. But all is not well for the for the mayor et al who have to account for themselves to an outsider who arrives on the island presenting himself as an inspector. The mayor, the doctor and the priest all lie to the inspector who knows the truth but doesn’t care. The story unravels.

The parable presents no real mystery. We all know of bodies being washed-up on the shores of Mediterranean islands. We’ve seen the photos and read the news reports. We know about human-trafficking. And it’s obvious that the mayor, the doctor and the priest are at a minimum, complicit in the deaths of the three black men and the white teacher.

As the mouth of the dog constellation spews out putrid fumes we are not surprised. And it is this, the fact that we are not surprised, that shows that Claudel has succeeded in telling us so vividly what we really already know, but who like the priest, the doctor and the mayor, prefer to hide from.

Highly recommended

— Edited due to touchstone problem

>9 kjuliff: A great review, K, and this sounds like such a difficult (but worthwhile) read.

>9 kjuliff: Sounds great. Noting that one - you sell it well.

I was hoping to read Katalin Street by Magda Szabó but I just can’t get into it, even though I can see it’s excellent. Maybe it’s because I’m having trouble concentrating. I’ve had two friends die in the past two weeks and not being able to attend the funerals and wakes makes the grieving hard.

For some reason I thought I’d read The Door, but haven’t. So I’m thinking I’ll give that ago as it’s constructed in a more conventional way and has less characters.

What I really need right now is a well-written page-turner. So any suggestions are welcome.

—- Edited for one typo

>9 kjuliff: This sounds excellent and it is now high on my list of books to read sooner.

>12 kjuliff: Gosh, two losses on top of each other is tough, Kate. I can appreciate that it's hard to start a new book in the circumstances.

The Door has been on my list for ages, so look forward to your review if you read it.

>12 kjuliff: For page-turners, Lou Berney, Denise Mina, Joseph Kanon are all good, depending on what direction you want to go in. The Body Lies by Jo Baker and Beware the Woman by Megan Abbott were ones I sped through.

>15 RidgewayGirl: Thanks Kay. I’ll check them out.

Well, I've fallen behind on your threads. I'm so sorry for all you've been going through. There are some longtime friends in my life whose deaths, should they occur before mine, I can't even begin to imagine living with.

The Slaughterman's Daughter looks very good. It reminds me somewhat of the Isaac B. Singer novels I've been reading.

For page turners, I recommend Philip Kerr's Bernie Gunther series, about a homicide detective working on the Berlin police force during the 1930s as the (detested by Gunther) Nazis solidify their power. The books can be dark, but they are well-written and very gripping.

A more lighthearted novel that I read a few years back and love to recommend is Madensky Square by Eva Ibbotson. It's a lovely, kindhearted story about a woman running a dressmaking shop in Vienna in 1910. My short (believe it or not) review is here: https://www.librarything.com/topic/281080#6532931

All the best.

Just catching up on your thread, and wonderful reviews of both, The Slaughterman's Daughter and Dog Island. The latter, in particular, sounds very interesting and I've bookmarked it. I'm not sure if you've read any of Jane Harper's books? They aren't light-hearted but they certainly are page-turners.

>12 kjuliff: How about going back in time for page turners? Lady Audley's Secret, Great Expectations, The Woman in White: even if you've read them before, they are great for just plain escape.

>18 rv1988: Thanks R. I do think you’d enjoy Dog Island - it’s a short book and nicely done.

I’ll give Jane Harper abotther go. I didn’t like her The Dry - it was a bit over-the-top Australian for me, so I was perhaps over critical, I’ve put Exiles on hold.

>17 rocketjk: I’ll have to look up Isaac Singer whose books I haven’t read but I googled and he sounds interesting. I see that many of the LT members who have read his books are in my Interesting Libraries. The Slaughterman’s Daughter is a great read and will be one of my favorites for 2024.

I’ll try the Bernie Gunther series. I usually don’t like detective books but I do like dark and gripping.

Thanks for your kind thoughts and recommendations.

>19 SassyLassy: Good idea. I had thought of going back to Dickens and feel I should read The Woman in White so am putting it on my tbr.

>15 RidgewayGirl: I started Three Fires as I’ve always been interested in Savonarola and given the current state of America politics he’s an appropriate figure to read about. ;)

>21 kjuliff: definitly have SD on my list, thanks

>21 kjuliff: A place to start with Singer is his relatively early novel, The Family Moskat. My review is here: https://www.librarything.com/topic/343320#7898567

Also, In My Father's Court is Singer's memoir of his childhood in Poland as the son of a local rabbi.

I can vouch for the second one (havent read the first) loved gimpel the fool and other stories actually any of his short stories collections are excellent

>25 rocketjk: I’ve actually heard of The Family Moskat and see it’s available in audio. It’s long, 20 plus hours but it looks well-worth it. I prefer this to the memoir. I have a feeling we may have read excepts of it in high school. It sounds very familiar to me.

>26 cindydavid4: & >27 kjuliff: And I can second CD4's point that Singer's short stories are excellent, too. The book I've read most recently, and loved, was his final collection, The Death of Methuselah. My review is on the book's work page.

I hope you've survived the latest wave of humidity, and that the construction on your building is finished. I have a replacement AC unit coming this weekend, and I can't wait. The heat has made me so cranky.

>30 labfs39: Thanks Lisa for asking after me.

The construction is stopped temporarily because of the heat. It started in 2019 and was halted during 2020-2021 due to Covid. Not due to finish till end of this year at the earliest. It’s a 38 floor building and every brick has to be examined plus balconies and windows.

I’m surviving the heat but it’s not good for my breathing and concentration. Reading 5 different books and can’t settle on any.

>31 kjuliff: I'm having trouble settling on a book too. I have three open at the moment, and two more that need attention. This heat makes me cranky and unfocused. Fortunately I woke up this morning to 61 degree temps. Hallelujah! Of course, it's supposed to get to 80 today, but at least the humidity is lower. I hope it is there as well.

I remember when that sort of building overhaul was done on my mother-in-law's apartment building (she lived at 36th and Park). She hated it. And when that was done, they started the construction project on the Morgan Library expansion next door.

>32 labfs39: unfortunately I remain unfocussed. The upcoming election scares me. My friends are all sick or looking for work. I can’t get around I will get out of this dark place but so far I’m well and truly in it.

Glad the temperature is coming down in your neck of the woods - hopefully you will get immersed in one of those books. If you do please let me know which one it is.

>33 kjuliff: You have a lot of stressors right now, Kate. I hope you can find some solace in the book talk and your friends here. You are a valued voice in Club Read, whether you are posting reviews or not. I'm so glad you are here.

>33 kjuliff: I hope you're feeling better! Can we do anything to cheer you up?

>35 rv1988: Thanks R. I wish there was something you and other well-wishers could do, but I’m just not coping with what’s on my plate plus getting old. I’m not aging happily. My attitude to old age is best described in the introduction of Katalin Street, a book that really needs to be read in print form and of course I’m stuck in audio, and it’s too long for me to transcribe a whole paragraph. It’s also a difficult book to understand band follow in audio, so sadly I had to give it up.

Thank you to all those who have wished me well. I have managed to read so of the stories in The Death of Methuselah by Isaac B Singer. This collection of gems may get me back on track. Thanks Jerry, well chosen.

I can see that 2024 is not going to be a very good year. Every day when I open The NY Times I feel despondent. The state of the world right now is depending on a handful of men who seem determined not to care about the harm they are doing. Of course the state of the world is not their fault alone, but sadly they have the power and support to tilt things the wrong and irreversible way.

Edited to fix touchstone

Just finished my third book of the year The Death of Methuselah by Isaac Bashevis Singer. I hope to review it later. Highly recommended.

I've been thinking about what a struggle it is to get past the abhorrent politics of our times too. It reminded me of this essay by George Orwell, which I've quoted from below. It might be a very naive take, particularly in the time he wrote it (1946) but there's something here I keep coming back to:

"Is it wicked to take a pleasure in Spring and other seasonal changes? To put it more precisely, is it politically reprehensible, while we are all groaning, or at any rate ought to be groaning, under the shackles of the capitalist system, to point out that life is frequently more worth living because of a blackbird’s song, a yellow elm tree in October, or some other natural phenomenon which does not cost money and does not have what the editors of left-wing newspapers call a class angle?....Certainly we ought to be discontented, we ought not simply to find out ways of making the best of a bad job, and yet if we kill all pleasure in the actual process of life, what sort of future are we preparing for ourselves? If a man cannot enjoy the return of Spring, why should he be happy in a labour-saving Utopia? What will he do with the leisure that the machine will give him? ...At any rate, spring is here, even in London N.1, and they can’t stop you enjoying it. ....The atom bombs are piling up in the factories, the police are prowling through the cities, the lies are streaming from the loudspeakers, but the earth is still going round the sun, and neither the dictators nor the bureaucrats, deeply as they disapprove of the process, are able to prevent it.

From 'Some Thoughts on the Common Toad' by George Orwell (1946) https://www.orwellfoundation.com/the-orwell-foundation/orwell/essays-and-other-w...

naive it might be, but if we lose that connection with the world around us we are starving ourselves of joy.

>38 rv1988: I don’t think it’s naive to point out we can still get joy from life even when the political times are dire; I think it is presumptive to point it out. People who spend their lives striving for a better world still have joy in their lives. What made Orwell assume they don’t? I think he should have tried to make his wife’s life happier, and stuck to writing joyless novels, instead of assuming that people working for a better world are incapable of smelling the roses.

>38 rv1988: Nice! I just read that in John Carey’s Faber book of science the other day. Orwell’s essays are always a good thing to turn to when you need some short, sharp writing to cheer you up. After all, he was writing about it seventy years ago and it never happened, right….???

>40 kjuliff: Sorry, didn't know you dislike Orwell. It's just a quote, and it does make sense within the broader context of the essay.

>38 rv1988: That is a great quote, and something I often wonder about, although not in nearly so expressive a fashion as Orwell.

>43 SassyLassy: >38 rv1988: I find it ironic that Orwell talks of joy but sees so much gloom and doom.

but the earth is still going round the sun, and neither the dictators nor the bureaucrats, deeply as they disapprove of the process, are able to prevent it.
This is nonsensical - dictators and bureaucrats are not trying to stop the earth circling the sun. I realize he didn’t mean this literally, but am not sure what point he’s trying to make in this sentence. Is he saying that these dictators and bureaucrats want to stop the seasons? Of course they can’t, but they can cause concern at the state of the world.

I guess I just don’t see what Orwell is getting at in the quote, and coming at a time when I am depressed for personal reasons I can’t still have joy in my life, at the same time be “feeling despondent” about the 2024 political scene (>36 kjuliff:)

>44 kjuliff: ... but the earth is still going round the sun...

I see this as more hopeful, that there is still joy to be found in our own lives, no matter what is going on around us - spring does return.

Remember, Orwell was a gardener, and that's one of the best things a person can do for their state of mind.

>45 SassyLassy: I absolutely agree with that - that the earth is still going around the sun and that there can still be joy. I just don’t think Orwell put it very well in the rest of his sentence: and neither the dictators nor the bureaucrats, deeply as they disapprove of the process, are able to prevent it.

When I lived in a house as opposed to an apartment I spent much of my spare time gardening. The physical work and helping in the creation of beauty is one of the most pleasurable activities.

But back to Orwell - I still think it’s a bit glib to point out that no matter what we still have seasons, with the implication that everyone can enjoy these. This is not true. People in many institutions cannot. It seems to be pointing out what many see as the obvious, and downplaying legitimate concern with the dangers of certain periods in world history.

>40 kjuliff: yup, all of that

>42 rv1988: I don’t dislike George Orwelland haven’t read any of his books since high school. Right now I’m more interested in Wifedom where apparently Funder does a hatchet job on the man. Whether deserved or not it might be a fun read. Australian Funder is a competent writer.

I also tried Exiles (>18 rv1988:) by Jane Harper, which I’ve put aside. It’s probably a well-plotted mystery, and she gets the small Australian town off pat. Problem is I don’t like people in small Australian towns. Did my stint in one of them till I managed to escape.

But it hits the popular meme of Australian babies disappearing in the Australian bush. Evil Angels by Bryson is an accurate and intriguing read.

For a good female Australian writer I recommend Helen Garner.

Enough of my midnight ramblings. I must have fallen out of a 🌴

Bloody hell, excuse the French, but just when I was expired enough to start a fresh novel - thanks Lisa - Salt to Sea and seeing a copy was available, the borrow button replied with “Your card has expired”.

My local library is closed for renovations and all other NYC branches are no longer open on Sundays due to budget cuts.

Meanwhile I’m reading Isaac B Singer’s short stories which I find extremely soothing in a strange way.

>49 kjuliff: Just your luck these days, Kate! I hope you can get it sorted out today. Although billed as YA, I am finding the opening chapters to be gripping.

>49 kjuliff: How does renewing your library card work? I've always just trotted down to my branch to do so, but they must have procedures in place if someone's mobility is limited? The library budget cuts in NYC boggle my mind. The library here is open 7 days a week. The system I used when I lived in South Carolina was (and still is) closed on Sundays, except the main library for a few hours, but the libraries in SC have to fight and raise money for everything they do these days. And SC just passed a book censorship law that will certainly make librarians's jobs harder now.

>51 RidgewayGirl: Here you go to the library, but a relative or care worker can go for you IF they are an NYPL member.

Re. NLS Braille and Talking Books membership I think it’s all online though I know you need to be an NYPL member if in NYC Manhattan.

>50 labfs39: I got it sorted out this morning. A bit of a drag but at least the temperature was in the 89s.

>51 RidgewayGirl: NYC has been swamped by immigrants who have been bussed in from red states. We are. Sanctuary city so have had to accommodate, feed and clothed and give access to medical facilities etc to 100,000 new immigrants this past 12 months.

The mayor has stopped the busses arriving with no notice, but it’s been a strain on all NYC residents. Up-state councils have refused them entry. It’s been a horror show with people arriving in busses not even knowing their destination.

does anyone remember a movie called 'the second civil way with James Earl Jones?Early 90s I think; watching it gave me a hint o the future, which is coming true; one of the main points was refugee orphans being flown to Idaho who revolt by trying to shoot it down....more info here

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Second_Civil_War

I’m glad the Booker longlist is out, as it might encourage me to read a novel. Recently I’ve been reading Isaac B Singer short stories. He’s such an excellent story-teller. I like both his early stories set in Poland pre WW II and his later ones set in NYC. His way of gently telling the outrageous reminds me of the writing of Perumal Murugan. There is something intrinsically loveable about their fictional characters, even the unloveable ones.

I’ve bought This Strange Eventful History . I have read many works relating French Algerians and I picked this novel from the Booker list partly because I’m interested in French Algerian history. But I also picked it as it only one review on LT, so I’m intrigued.

I’m really hoping this book grabs me. I put three Booker 2024 books on hold at my library. I really wanted to read Held. Of the others, apart from James, I am completely ignorant.

>55 kjuliff: I just finished Enlightenment by Sarah Perry and it is on the shortlist. I THINK you might like the book, but maybe not as well as me. It comes very close to my best books ever. A blend of history, science and God, or religion and mystery. I have a 'review' on my thread if you can read it.

>56 JoeB1934: I put Enlightenment on my wishlist in Audible because it’s not available in my library. I’ll probably get it when I get my next credit there. It was a toss-up whether to choose it or This Eventful History. which I’ve started but which so far is a bit middle-of-the-road.

>57 kjuliff: I signed up for their annual program which is 12 credits for $150. But the secret is that you can use the credits anytime you want. No waiting for the next month. You can even get a 24-credit version for a little less per credit.

>58 JoeB1934: Yes I realize that Joe. I’m signed up for 1 credit a month. I looked at the Booker books that I couldn’t get from my libraries. I chose to buy This Strange Eventful History and put Enlightenment on my wishlist so I wouldn’t forget it was only available on Audio. I chose This Strange Eventful partly because I like books set in Algeria pre and post French colonization.

I always aim to read everything on the Booker though it appears to not be “in” by some of my literary friends. It’s still a good filter for me as I’ve rarely read a really bad book using the Booker as a guide. However I do see it is a little bland of late and a bit American-centric. I still look forward to it.

I will be reading The Enlightenment for sure and will but it when the next credit comes late this month.

Photographic Memories

Held
By Anne Michael
Narrated by: Anne Michaels
Length: 4 hrs and 29 mins
Rating: 5

Held is an intelligent novel of held memories. It covers four generations spanning different countries, held together tenuously and driven by women.

Time slips forward and back, but there’s no thread of singular continuity. We are not told directly whose child is the one who becomes a doctor in war zones, or who will wear the cap made by the Italian emigré in an chapter later in the book that was set in an earlier generation.

It’s as if the memories of the many characters that the writer deftly touches upon are thrown together, held by knitting stitches that the reader must navigate.

Reading Held, I was constantly reminded Magda Szabó’s opening paragraph in Katalin Street.

Time had shrunk to specific moments, important events to single episodes, familiar places to mere backdrops to individual scenes. Only a few moments and places really mattered; everything else was so much wadding - wood-shavings stuffed into a trunk to protect the contents on the long journey to come

Held is not a book that lends itself to a synopsis. More poetry than narrative, it examines the meaning of being, lapsing into physics and photography, chemistry and consciousness. It is what isn’t there as much as what is that’s important. In Quantum Physics as I understand it, there are single particles that move position from here to there in the smallest unit of time. The meaning is in what is not there.

Perhaps meaning lies in the change of state.That the purpose of synapses is the space between them? the writer asks the reader.

Like a mime Michaels brings our attention to phenomena by their absence. Like the imaginary tennis ball in Antonioni’s film Blowup, objects are every bit as "real" as the evidential photograph is "illusory."

We are constantly asked to look at opposites.
Is meaning at the heart of behaviors or is behavior at the heart of the meaning?

The blending of the poetic presentation of science and philosophy is challenging at times, but the challenge is worth it.

What connects the narratives are themes and motifs. As different characters slide into to chapters there’s not always an explicit connection. At times it feels like a riddle, and at first character “jump”, I wondered should I take notes. But of course that would ruin the flow and is unnecessary. If it is important we will know.

Themes of memory, war, love, death and the lives of women are tied together seamlessly. There are places such as the French café that pop up unexpectedly, causing the reader to be drawn back to other chapters and characters, thus retrospectively plugging in gaps that hadn’t even been noticed. This is a subtle read.

I will undoubtedly be reading this book again, as it’s so densely packed with both concepts and stories that I’m sure I missed a lot.

Held is a book to be read leisurely with pleasure.

>60 kjuliff: This certainly sounds like I will want to read as I am deep into memories of my life and trying to merge those memories into something meaningful. My effort won't be poetic, or philosophical as this but will, I hope to be meaningful to my family.

>61 JoeB1934: Joe, going from your past favorites, I don’t think you would enjoy this book. It doesn’t really have a plot as such, and the fragments of the experiences of the book’s characters are hung together by tenuous threads.

It’s an unusual book, almost a poem. Maybe I’m wrong but please read some other reviews first. I recommend the review by lelandleslie who begins his review with:

This novel is a mystical novel Attunement, boundaries, boundaries crossed. A bare micrometer.” From the first verse of the eighth chapter, whose character, Paavo, seems surely based on the contemporary classical composer of mystical and sacred works, Arvo Pärt. “The precipice of one word placed next to another, one note next to another.” The poet, the composer; imagine an invisible “l” inserted into “word”: the mystic. Review HERE.

Or this, from another LT member -
If you are looking for a plot-driven narrative with a simple timeline, settings and character development, this book may not be your cup of tea. Instead, it is a novel of ideas that suppresses those traditional narrative elements in favor of a more lyrical approach to a meditation on the nature of existence. from the review by ozzer which has an excellent introduction. See HERE

I feel my review does not adequately reveal the nature of the book. However it does reveal my thoughts upon reading Held.

>60 kjuliff: Held sounds fantastic. I hadn't planned on digging into the Booker longlist at all, but you've convinced me to make an exception.

>60 kjuliff: Fantastic review, and I like reading about memory, but I just don't have the concentration for a book like that at the moment. A better book for me to read in winter when I can hunker down with it. Noting for future reference.

This is an excellent review, Kate. I’m thinking now that I may not like Held which will be ready for me at the library soon. But I’ll for sure read at least the first 50 pages. Thanks for such a thoughtful review!

>65 dianelouise100: Thanks Diane. You will know after 50 pages if it’s for you. Try to get past the bit about the soldier to be sure.

The chart below illustrates two related aspects of my vision and reading histories:
1 The number of audiobooks I’ve borrowed from NYPL since 2018 anding July 2024
2 The decrease in my vision since I was diagnosed with vitelliform macular dystrophy in 2018.
Note this doesn’t show audio books I’ve bought, or borrowed from the Braille library. I’ve read about 20% more audio overall. I was able to read books until late 2020.

I’ve just finished The Safekeep which is on this year’s Booker longlist. I hope to review it tomorrow. But it’s going to be hard. The denouement can’t be mentioned as it’d be a big spoiler. I really liked the book till the last chapter and now I’m sort of off it, yet for the most part I really enjoyed it. I hope to hear from other members as to what they thought of it. I’m not sure now.

Pairs and Pears

The Safekeep
Yael van der Wouden
Narrated by: Stina Nielsen, Saskia Maarleveld
Length: 9 hrs and 30 mins
Rating: 4

This is a strange book. Is it a mystery? Is its subject erotica, theft, OCD? Or is it about family and friendship, WWII, homosexuality or all of the above. Or perhaps it’s about a house.

The Safekeep is a difficult book to review without giving away the denouement or the clues, and so I’ll start with the main characters: the family house, Isabelle, her brothers Louis and Hendrick, Eva - Louis’s lover, and Sebastian - Hendrix’s lover. Ever present in the background are various members of the generation that produced them.

The book starts with the daily life of Isabelle in the 1960s. She’s mistress of a house in eastern Holland that her family moved into in 1944 when Isabelle was a very young child and there was famine in the west. Her memories of that time are vague. It is assumed that Isabelle who is single will remain in the house till she marries. Her brothers are now adults and have their own lives and lovers. The parents are long-gone and the eldest brother Louis has become the legal owner of the house, though Isabelle lives there alone.

At first the Isabelle is painted as a sexless neurotic with severe OCD. She counts the spoons daily, imagining the maid is stealing small household objects. She insists the serving dishes in a glass cabinet only be brought out on special occasions, as was the practice of “Mother”. She values every item and tends to the house almost religiously. She’s unlikable and friendless by choice.

Her life is monotonous till brother Louis introduces his new lover, a peroxided-haired uneducated Eva to the family. Isabelle can’t stand her. Her “common” mannerisms and her fake high little-girl voice are an anathema to well-bred Isabelle. When Louis insists that Eva stay with Isabelle while he’s away on a lengthy business trip, she resists but has no choice.

The tone of the novel shifts. Two opposites, the staid spinster and the cheap sex bomb barely coexist. Isabelle now believes Eva is stealing trinkets and spoons from the house. When Eva, trying to be conciliatory offers her a pear, Isabelle is furious, wants the fruit out of the house and not knowing how to do this without Eva seeing, ravishes it secretly - skin, core, seeds and stem. The juice streams down her chin. The reader is lulled into thinking Isabelle is becoming insane, that her ODC is accelerating, and that this is a book about a descent into madness.

Then suddenly the reader is jolted out of this perception. The direction the novel has been taking changes. Without warning Eva and Isabelle become reluctant but insatiable lovers. Their desire and dislike coexist, with desire winning. Sex scenes abound as Isabelle discovers her sexuality.

This part of the book seems unreal, unbelievable. Why does Isabelle alter so? Why does the frizzy-haired shrill Eva change her voice and appear to be intelligent and sensitive. Why does Eva leave her new-found love and run away into the night?

The answer my friend is a’blowing in the Northern wind. Looking back, once we know the truth of the matter, the clues are there. But this reader for one didn’t notice them.

Perhaps you will.

>14 AlisonY: Sorry for the late response. I just realized you’d asked me this back in July. I enjoyed the novel and gave it 4 stars. But I didn’t get to write a review, as I got into reading a heap of books by Isaac Singer which distracted me. I think, from what I know of your reading, that you’d enjoy The Door.

The Wondering Jew

Enemies, A Love Story
By Isaac B Singer
Narrated by Ray Hagen
Length: ~7 hours
Rating:4

Written in 1966 in Yiddish and published in 1977 in English, Enemies, a Love Story tells of the lives of Jewish refugees in New York in the aftermath of WWII. The main characters are Herman and his three wives.

Herman Broder, a non-observant Jew and Talmudic scholar has settled in Coney Island. He has lost his family including his wife and two children to the Holocaust. He survived by hiding in a hayloft, aided by Yadwiga, a Polish peasant, a gentile who had served in his father’s house in Poland prior to the Nazi invasion.

Herman is a man who contemplates the meaning of life, constantly wondering and in wonder. When he looks at the moon, he wonders how did it get there? He tries to imagine a god who has given man free will without choice. He wonders how a god could create such a world where Nazis killed whole families. Was god a sadist? And who was the devil and why didn’t god kill him.

I was intrigued by the character of Herman. He’s a man of intelligence, humor, compassion and is an unapologetic liar. At times as he contemplates life, it’s as if he’s a child, seeing the world for the first time. There’s an endearing quality in this complex man.

The plot is a bit of fun. If being hidden in a hayloft in fear of the SS can be described as humorous, then Isaac B Singer is the one to do it.

Before the war Herman was married and had two children. After the war, believing his Jewish wife dead, he brings Yadwiga the Polish peasant who sheltered him, to the U.S. on his visa and sets up house with her. She’s ignorant, superstitious, follows the old ways and is at first ignored by the other apartment dwellers, all Jewish immigrants who mainly speak Yiddish. Yadwiga cant speak English or Yiddish and her rough peasant Polish is barely understandable even by Herman. But he marries her. After all his wife is dead and what else is he to do with her. She can’t survive in New York alone.

Herman lies to Yadwiga and, pretending to be a traveling salesman to cover up his long absences from their Coney Island home. He has an affair with a Jewish woman who lives in the Bronx. Masha also a Holocaust survivor spent the war years in an extermination camp. She’s a drama queen, volatile and sexual. She’s always complaining about the Bronx apartment that Herman has rented for her - “In the camp, at least we had hope”.

Yadwiga has meanwhile learned how to cook Jewish foods such as matzo balls with borscht, and is converting to Judaism. She loves Herman with all her heart. For his part he feels some responsibility and gratitude for her, but not love. At times she annoys him and he mocks her, calling her a peasant. They share no interests and only occasionally, a bed.

As Herman juggles his life between the two women, traveling between Coney Island and the Bronx on the subway, he also has to earn a quid, which he does by ghost-writing speeches for a fraud of a rabbi who he also lies to. While Yadwiga is busy learning Jewish rites, Herman marries Masha, both civilly and under Jewish law.

And suddenly out of the blue, Herman’s Jewish wife, Tamara turns up. She’s found him by advertising in the New York Yiddish newspaper. There was so much dislocation in the immediate post-war years and whole families had been separated by the war, and the paper’s classifieds were full of people looking for family members.

Herman’s life is full of lies. He can’t go on living like this. He owes Yadwiga now pregnant, loves Masha, and is committed to Tamara who probably knows him best.

He can have no rest. He spends his nights imagining bombing Nazis, and staring at the moon. Who put it there? Who is this god? In the days he moves around New York to his various commitments on the subways, a nightmare to this day for any New Yorker.

He lies to the rabbi as to when he’ll complete his speeches. He lies to each of his three wives, and tries to spend time with each one.

The situation cannot go on and how it pans out cannot be told here. But it’s a great book. The characters are impeccably described. There’s humor, some of it gallows. There’s the plot intricacies. There’s the description of post-war New York with its immigrants, humor, decay and the Yiddish culture.

I didn’t read any reviews till I’d finished reading and was astounded at the lack of understanding of a couple of the LT reviewers.
Herman is a cowardly little Jew who hid out in a haystack while his people were gassed in the Holocaust one wrote.

Singer is even described as sexist: Her calves were muscular, hard as stone. . . . Her breasts were full and white; her hips were round Singer wrote of Herman’s thoughts on meeting Masha. Cannot a man find a woman sexy any more?

I found his portrayal of survivors offensive. wrote another reviewer. Obviously he was offended but no offense was intended. Humor is a coping mechanism. But perhaps it was Herman’s denial of god offended him.

Enemies, a Love Story is a moving intelligent and very funny book. It is indeed a love story. Highly recommended.

>71 kjuliff: Sounds fantastic. I have to read more IB Singer.

>71 kjuliff: Thanks for your very helpful review of this. I have read a lot of Singer but always avoided this one; I'm not quite sure why. Guess it's time to move it to the TBR pile!

Just as an fyi, I'm going to skip reading your review of Enemies until I read the book myself in a few months. I'll circle back to your impressions then. Cheers!

>74 rocketjk: Good idea. I didn’t read any reviews beforehand. There was a v short blurb on the audio version. Interestingly there’s a heap of I B Singer’s books at the National Braille and Talking Books Library and I can borrow them with no time limits or holds. There’s v few available commercially. But The Estate and the other book you mentioned are not available.

>73 Gypsy_Boy: The title may have turned you off. It is not really apt, and could give the wrong impression.

>71 kjuliff: Oh that sounds fun. Onto the teetering list it goes.

A few people are talking about top tens - I decided to select the 10 of my LT favorite novels, and it was not an easy task. But here they are in author order.

- Story of a Brief Marriage - Anuk Arudpragasam
- Plague- Camus
- Waiting for the Barbarians - J. M. Coetzee
- Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
- The Magic Mountain - Thomas Mann
- A Heart so White - Javier Marias
- A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
- A House for Mr. Biswas - V. S. Naipaul
- The Bell Jar- Sylvia Plath
- Perfume: The Story of a Murderer Patrick Süskind

>78 kjuliff: I'm glad you posted your list. I really must get to A Fine Balance. I didn't get on with Mr. Biswas, but I did like The Plague and Madame Bovary. I've read 30% of your favorites, not too shabby. :-)

I found this list incredibly hard to make,
If I didn’t have LT and hadn’t given 5 stars, I probably would not have picked these exact books. I had trouble pruning 35 books to ten. Some meant a lot to me, but would not have come immediately to mind.

For example I would have expected to include an Ian McEwan but there was no room. I had to include Plague and so I chopped the McEwan. What remains is those books I just couldn’t chop. And then there are some recent “favorites” - The Trees and Estuary and any of the Isaac B Singer I’ve read for example. But I’m not sure that they’ll stay the test of time - they will remain 5 starred but are they good enough to replace existing choices? I was also sad not to include Malgudi Days but couldn’t knock out other titles for this Narayan who is a favorite author.

>80 kjuliff: This is really a hard process for anyone. I will make a stab at it for myself after I finish my life history project. On second thought why not make it part of my history. Currently I am thinking top 15, or 20 would be good.

Or, one per year of reading life.

>78 kjuliff:
A really interesting list. Of the four I've read, I haven't got any listed amongst my favourites, but can totally see why you included them (Camus, Flaubert, Marias, Plath), and rated them pretty highly myself. The Mann, Mistry, Naipaul and Suskind are all on my TBR list, so looks like I should add the other two as well! I'll add my top 10s to my thread tomorrow - it's late at night here now.

>78 kjuliff: A Fine Balance is such a brilliant book, and I share your love of Madame Bovary, although I haven't read it in decades and wonder if I'd change my mind if I reread it now. I've read Arudpragasam's A Passage North, but not the previous novel, I will have to remedy that.

>83 RidgewayGirl: >82 Willoyd: Arudpragasam’s The Story of a Brief Marriage is set in a refugee camp in an unnamed country. It is very short, exquisite, sad and very important for people living in these troubled times. It speaks to the heart.

>82 Willoyd: Coetzee’s Waiting for the Barbarians speaks to the exploitation of ignorance of unknown people, the inciting of fear and hate, paranoia and using negative ideas and falsehoods to gain and hold power.

— What stunned me about my list was the paucity of female writers. About 45% of the books I read are by women and I’ll try updating my list of favorite writers - my list on my profile page was lackadaisically done - marking favorited writers after joining LT just a few years ago. I tended to “favor” a writer after reading an impressive work, rather than comparing the writer to others in the list.

My favorite books list doesn’t represent my love of Central European literature. If I apply the 4 book rule it probably won’t in my favorite authors list either.

>78 kjuliff: There are three there that would probably make my top ten:

The Magic Mountain
The Plague
A Fine Balance

>78 kjuliff: I really must move The Magic Mountain further up my TBR pile.

I’ve not been reading much lately due to health and family problems. I’ve been distracting myself by following the DNC. As another Australian expat wrote to me from Poland -
“The democrats really know how to put on a show”

I’m feeling more optimistic for America’s future now. I think that should Trump win, and seeing that I cannot fly, I’d have to move across the border to Mexico.

Homage to Kafka

A Cage Went in Search of a Bird
Becca Rothfeld (Introduction)

Ten successful writers were asked to write a short story to honor Franz Kafka on the hundredth anniversary of his death in 2024.

This is an impossible book to review, as to describe any of the stories in any real detail would need spoiler alerts. I can say however that the book is worth reading - if you are into Kafka.

Becca Rothfeld’s introduction is an amusing Kafka 101 both for readers familiar with Kafka’s works and for reader who know of him only for the common usage of the word, “Kafkaesque”.

I particularly enjoyed Ali Smith’s opening story, “Art Hotel” about a journey to homelessness in an English holiday town. Joshua Cohen’s “Return to the Museum” was good, but seemed too close to a brilliant George Saunders museum story. Naomi Alderman’s “God’s Doorbell” was the most appropriate for modern readers, being set in the near future where AI creatures build a tower in search of god.

Every story is a good read, the final “This Fact Can Be Prove by a Sense of Hearing” by Charlie Kaufman is intricate though, like its title, a little too contrived.

The other stories are by Tommy Orange, Elif Batuman, Helen Oyeyemi Yiyun Li, Leone Ross and Keith Ridgeway.

Easy reading and easily worth a rating of 3.5.

>88 kjuliff: Nice review, Kate. If only I read more short stories, I would add it to my list. As it is I have oodles of short stories awaiting my attention.

Just to let people know I’m still here and hope to review soon Right and Left by Joseph Roth I’m finding him to be a fascinating writer who unfortunately died quite young and only spent 15 years writing. Such a loss to literature.

I’m surprised to see so few reviews about him both here on LT and other groups.

>90 kjuliff: I have yet to read this Roth. I have The Radetsky March on the shelves, and Job on my wishlist.

Ah...one of my favorites. I would recommend (among many other things) these two novellas: Hotel Savoy and The Bust of the Emperor as well as the novels Job and The Emperor's Tomb. I'm not generally a completist, but I make a handful of exceptions and Roth has always been one. Happy reading!

I really enjoyed Joseph Roth’s Right and Left - more than any other book I’ve read this year. I am having trouble writing a review - I largely know what I want to say, but writing anything takes me so long because I cannot see what I type as I type. And I’m keen to spend time reading more J Roth rather than reviewing right now.

Unfortunately not many of his works are available in audio form. I’m about to start The Tale of the 1002nd Night and will most likely follow it up with The Emperor’s Tomb, these being available through National Library Service for the Blind and Print Disabled (NLS). Few of J Roth’s work is available in audio format commercially.

The NLS offers books that have never been commercially produced in audio form as well as those available commercially. I quite like the early narrators. I was one in my 30s - as a volunteer. This was well before I was diagnosed with Vitelliform Macular Dystrophy. If I had only known!

The early narrators tended to read as one would to a friend or student. No drama. More or less normal voice without dramatics. I find such narrators do not get in the way of the book , so listening to them is more like reading.
— End of digression.

I’m keen to read more books from the between the wars period, especially those translated from German or Yiddish. Suggestions welcome.

For those unfamiliar with Joseph Roth’s work, I recomen On translating Joseph Roth by Michael Hoffmann.

Im not familiar with him but would like to read Right and Left A review of his books includes this essay written in 1933 that sounds apt today

"Very few observers anywhere in the world seem to have understood what the Third Reich’s burning of books, the expulsion of Jewish writers, and all its other crazy assaults on the intellect actually mean. The technical apotheosis of the barbarians, the terrible march of the mechanized orangutans, armed with hand grenades, poison gas, ammonia, and nitroglycerine, with gas masks and airplanes, the return of the spiritual (if not the actual) descendants of the Cimbri and Teutoni— all this means far more than the threatened and terrorized world seems to realize: It must be understood. Let me say it loud and clear: The European mind is capitulating. It is capitulating out of weakness, out of sloth, out of apathy, out of lack of imagination (it will be the task of some future generation to establish the reasons for this disgraceful capitulation)."

>93 kjuliff: "I’m keen to read more books from the between the wars period, especially those translated from German or Yiddish. Suggestions welcome."

I'm not sure if this is the kind of thing you had in mind, since it's written in English rather than German or Yiddish, but another famous Roth is Henry Roth, whose brilliant book Call It Sleep is a great representation of the Jewish immigrant experience in the U.S. It was first published in 1934. I read it in college, so way back in the 1970s. I think maybe I need to reread this.

Another Polish-Jewish writer who is not as well known as Isaac Singer today but who was quite well known in his day and wrote in Yiddish is Sholem Asch.

A German writer you might find interesting is Hans Fallada, who wrote during the 30s and 40s. Though I must admit that the only book of his I've read is the brilliant Every Man Dies Alone, which takes place in Berlin during the war but which was published in 1947.

Here is a NY Times article from a while back about the work of current Yiddish scholars to find and republish the work of many women authors who wrote in Yiddish during the early part of the 20th century (so not between the wars for the most part, but still an interesting article). My interest piqued by this article, I ordered and read Miriam Karpilove's novel, Diary of a Lonely Girl, or the Battle Against Free Love, which I thought was very interesting but not necessarily a compellingly written book. I don't know that it would be available in audio version, though.

Well, that's all that pop into my head right now.

>95 rocketjk: Thanks Jerry.
Yes I’ve read two of Hans Fallada. I liked his work but not much is translated. I’m not interested now in English writers - I’ve read a number on the between world wars history from the English pov. I’m more interested in the lives of people who experience life in Europe back then.

I just discovered Irmgard Keun. She wasn’t Jewish but her books were banned by Nazi authorities. She lived with Joseph Roth shortly before his death, and like him suffered from alcoholism.

To date Joseph Roth is my favorite of the writers of Germany and the remnants of the Austria-Hungarian Empire in the early part of the 20th century.

I will read some Sholem Asch - plenty of his books are available. Thanks again for the run-down.

>96 kjuliff: Full disclosure re: Asch. The only book of his I've actually read was The Apostle, one of the New Testament trilogy he wrote towards the end of his career. These books didn't go over well with the New York Yiddish literary community, and in fact The Apostle didn't strike me as a very good book. I just wanted to be clear that I've mentioned his earlier works based on reputation only. I'll be interested to read what you think of his works.

Also, to be clear, though Henry Roth wrote Call it Sleep in English, he was from Tysmenitz, Galicia, in the Austro-Hungarian Empire (now Ukraine).

>97 rocketjk: Thanks. I checked and there are several Henry Roth books available at the NLS. I will read at least one. I’ll also find out more about Asch.

>96 kjuliff: If you're interested in these writers, you should definitely check out some of the novels and short stories of Stefan Zweig. And, though I haven't read his other works, I was impressed with Jew Suss by an author largely forgotten today, Lion Feuchtwanger.

>99 Gypsy_Boy: Oh, good call! I have a couple of his books on my shelves but haven't read any yet.

>99 Gypsy_Boy: >97 rocketjk:
Between the two of you I see I have a feast ahead of me.

>101 kjuliff: Speaking for myself only, I'd day that there are plenty of other LT members who are far more versed on the German language writers of the between-war period than I am, so of course we've only scratched the surface.

Oh, but now that I think of it, how could I have forgotten Walter Kempowski, whose brilliant book All For Nothing about eastern Germany during the final days of the war I read a few years back. That, obviously doesn't fit into the time period you're interested in. He wrote in the 60s and 70s primarily, though according to Wikipedia:

Kempowski's first success as an author was the autobiographic novel Tadellöser und Wolff, in which he described his youth in Nazi Germany from the viewpoint of a well-off middle-class family. In several more books he completed the story of his family from the early 20th century into the late 1950s. {Also according to Wikipedia this book was translated into English later, though I don't know about audio editions in English.}

Ok Im sold on Suss and after reading this, will probably want more Marta Feuchtwanger

Illness specifically worsening vision has prevented me from reviewing books these past weeks. I really hope I have not written my last review. I will find out at my next opthamology appointment how far my retinas have deteriorated recently, and maybe I’ll get a new prognosis. The main problem is that I can’t see what I type.

Meanwhile I’m still reading via audio and enjoying my latest interest in German and Yiddish literature of the 1920s and 30s. Thanks to David/ Gypsy_Boy and Jerry/ @rockerkj who have introduced me to the literature of Joseph Roth and Isaac Singer and other such writers. A veritable treasure-chest.

I think Ive read alot of those writers then I find out more. its a bottomless treasure chest!

I hope you get good news from your dr. I take if speech to text no longer works for you Hope there is another solution Hang in there

>105 cindydavid4: I need to actually write - pen or type to write a review or essay. I can’t seem to dictate fiction, analysis or critique. And in any case, I’d still have to read back and edit the text produced by speech.

I can use speech for commands such as - Alexa what’s the time in Melbourne? But writing a review when I need to look back at notes and try to find parts of books I may need to refer to, is becoming a very long process. Unfortunately LT doesn’t have a draft mode and I don’t like to go back and substantially edit a review once posted.

>106 kjuliff: A lot of sites don't have a draft mode, sadly. And what with errant fingers, I used to type lengthy posts only to have them magically disappear on me in their entirety, completely unretrievable! So I've learned one "trick" that I use increasingly, especially for longer posts. I just type up my drafts in Word. That way, I can leave them open or save them, as I see fit, and work on them for a week or more. Then, when I'm finally set (or think I am), I just cut-and-paste the entire post at once. I don't need to review it any more and just click on "Post Message." Maybe that would work for you. (And best of luck at the ophthalmologist's office!)

Even if you don't write a review after reading a book, the discussions that often arise regarding your book choices and your impressions, are as valuable to me. I have been following the conversation about Joseph Roth and before that IB Singer with much interest.

>106 kjuliff: "Unfortunately LT doesn’t have a draft mode"

Have you ever used the "Preview" button at the bottom of the Add a Message field? It shows you what you've written so far while keeping your in-process post still open and easily edited. Sorry if this is my "captain obvious" post of the morning.

>109 rocketjk: I can use the Preview button but that doesn’t solve the problem. I can only see every second letter of a word at a time and have to guess the word or turn my head to see the missing letters - and then the first-seen letters disappear. It takes forever to write a sentence. So I have a hard time with a review as the words flow in my mind so much faster than I can type then. I can’t see what I am typing and have to look up after every word.

It’s a very slow process. So if I go to preview made to correct a typo I then have to scroll up and find the mis-spelled. Words with double letters in them take a long time to type because I can’t work out if there are one or two or three of the doubled letters. For example I just typed letters but I have to really concentrate on checking what I’ve typed. Often the LT editor will underline a word it thinks is an error and it takes me several seconds to work it out.

In short it takes a long time to write a review where I have several thoughts I want to express.

>107 Gypsy_Boy: That is the solution. The only disadvantage is having to go back once the review is pasted in, to add any italics and to add touchstones. I have started doing that. There’s lesss \ha\n\ce as you\ m\r\nti\o\n,\ o\ lod\in\g\ the\ wh\o\l\e review. Please note the last sentence was written without me checking a word at a time. I’m leaving it there to illustrate the problem.

Like lisa said, I know its frustrating to you not to be able to write reviews, but your posts are enjoyed by folk here, and are helpful in our own reads . So try not to stress (tho I know you will) and know people appreciate what you do

>107 Gypsy_Boy: Yes, good point. I often use that strategy as well for longer posts.

>107 Gypsy_Boy: I also use that technique unless I need to do some LT specific html, or images. If that is true, then I use one of my old threads that I hope no one will notice and do my drafting there. Then copy/paste to my desired post.

This has become embarrassing a couple of times when an LT member sees the thread has been active and goes there to see what is going on. A few chuckles and explanations solve that situation.

>111 cindydavid4: >108 labfs39: Than you Cindy and Lisa. I guess you are both correct and I can still comment and post and don’t have to write reviews. I just need to accept this as there *is* no viable solution. The lack of an edit function on LT is not the problem, it’s my lack of central vision, the extent of which expands over time.

I think I posted as I really wanted to review Right and Left. I’d been making notes while reading but even note taking had been frustrating. So it saddened me that one more activity had been lost to me.

>114 kjuliff: Loss of vision must be so hard to cope with, Kate. I've developed glaucoma in one eye at a relatively young age and I've a fear of how it might progress.

Have you had your appointment yet with the opthamologist? Eye science seems to be developing in leaps and bounds. I hope they are able to give you some positive news.

>115 AlisonY: I’ve had this condition for over 10 years . It’s untreatable. I just go every 6 months to see how far it’s progressed. They do a scan of the retinas. They no longer ask me to read from the eye chart as I cannot even see the chart. They just hold up fingers and ask how many I can see.

Joseph Roth

This is not a review but a need to call attention to the works of Joseph Roth for those who have not read his works. I had not heard of this Roth till last month. I feel sad that I wasted years knowing nothing of this brilliant writer.

I first read his Right and Left and was so taken by it that I borrowed The Collected Stories of Joseph Roth which I’m reading at leisure.

I’m currently reading Job: the Story of a Simple Man and am completely blown away by his prose. I know nothing of the Biblical Job and all I knew about the cultural figure is the saying, “the patience of Job”. So it’s with fresh unbiased eyes that I’m reading this absorbing story.

I’ve taken note of Joseph Roth, thanks to your praise, and have checked out the e-book of The Radetzky March on Hoopla, which also offers an audio version. I also noted that Audible offers it, free to its “Plus” members. I don’t know if you know that one, but the first chapter is amazing! As you say, remarkable prose.

>118 dianelouise100: Thanks for letting me know that The Radetzky March is free on Audible. I’ve just downloaded it - I had it on hold at NYPL. I just now listened to the excellent introduction to Joseph Roth by Nadime Gordimer. I did like her comparison to the effects of the fall of the Austria Hungarian Empire experienced by Roth to the effects of the fall of the Soviet Union empire being still felt today.

Let me know more of what you think of The Radetzky March after you’ve read it. I’ll most likely read it after I finish Job: the Story of a Simple Man.

>118 dianelouise100: I just finished Job, The Story of a Simple Man. I highly recommend it. I couldn’t stop reading. I only wish I could review it.

I will now read The Radetzky March. I’m looking forward to it,

I just finished it, and really liked it

>121 cindydavid4: I’m assuming you read the print version. How do you think it’d be in audio?

I was hoping to start it yesterday but am sick as a dog. I can’t stay awake.

I think it might be ok, there are a lot of characters to keep straight but with the right reader it should be fine

>122 kjuliff: I’m hoping you’ll feel better soon, Kate. I think the narrator of The Radetzky March is certainly adequate and that at least the listening aspect of the experience should be ok.. I’m still waiting to start Chapter 2, trying to be disciplined enough to finish Singer’s The Estate first.

>124 dianelouise100: I’m having a problem staying focused with it, but this is probably because I feel so bad. I have to keep going back pages because my mind wanders or I fall asleep. The narrator seems fine. I’ll keep going as once I get into it I’m sure I will like it. I’ve so enjoyed Joseph Roth’s other books.

Hope you feel better soon, Kate.

>126 labfs39: Thanks Lisa. I do too. I can’t seem to get motivated and feel I’m doing less and less. I thought that by giving up on writing reviews that I’d read more. But it hasn’t seemed to have worked.

>127 kjuliff: Some illnesses sap all concentration and motivation, try not to be too hard on yourself. You may not be writing reviews, but you have certainly stirred up interest in Singer and Joseph Roth. I love how passionately you promote the authors you like.

>124 dianelouise100: I’m really into The Radetzky March now. Once I applied myself for an hour it became much easier to follow on audio.

I know little of the decline of the Austria-Hungarian Empire though I do know the 20th century countries that composed it. I went to school and university with many whose families fled what was then Czechoslovakia. But I can’t easily visualize the placing of the old counties, so I am a bit overwhelmed by the geographical area covered.

Of course it doesn’t really matter - the novel is about disintegration and the changes affecting middle class (English definition) families.

I find Joseph Roth to be such a sensitive writer and I still can’t get over the fact that I’ve only just found him.

>128 labfs39: Yes I go a bit overboard on those writers I get literary crushes on.

>129 kjuliff: I’m not as far along as I’d like (about 100 pages), due to some unavoidable distractions), but I’m really enjoying this book also. I’m glad the narration is working for you!

>131 dianelouise100: I’ve only just reached Part 2. I think it’s because I’m too easily distracted lately.

The very early 20th century is such an interesting time, especially for Europe. The build-up to WWI must have had a huge impact, coming as it did with the modernization of so many functions. Technological advances were affecting the lives of people of all classes.

In many ways it’s similar to our time. Scary.

>132 kjuliff: You’re certainly right—I’m finding the atmosphere of the novel so tense for various reasons that I read in small chunks. My goal, with any book, is about 50-75 pages a day, but with The Radetzky March I don’t read those pages in one sitting. I have to take little breaks. I’m thinking of going back to Singer (The Family Moskat) for my next read.Plenty of conflicts in his works, but less tense overall.

Yes I agree. Isaac Singer is less intense. I can fly through his short stories. I really recommend his Enemies a Love Story. Full of humor and the NYC parts are spot on.

Monthly Author Reads has chosen to read Singer for the month of October. Looking forward to it. I’ll add Enemies to the list.

>135 dianelouise100: I just joined that group - I wasn’t aware of it

>135 dianelouise100: wait, I didnt know they voted..... need to pay more attention, but Ill gladly read some more Singer

>138 cindydavid4: I meant I wasn’t aware of the group. I wasn’t referring to anything about a vote. I only just joined the group about an hour ago. Anyway I’m sure you’d like Enemies and I’m glad I now know of the group.

Btw - saw the current Author of the Month is Beryl Bainbridge. I’ve read most of hers and she’s one of my favorite authors.

>133 dianelouise100: Re The Radesky March - I’m starting to understand a lot more about the current Ukraine situation from reading this book. The problems of the disintegration of the Austrian Hungarian Empire have effects to this day. I have had a several friends from those countries and am starting to understand more. A bit late in the day for me catching up but I am glad I am.

For a book written in 1932 I am amazed at Roth’s predictions - some stated explicitly - as to how it would all roll out.

>139 kjuliff: MAR chooses authors quarterly—think Cindy was referring to that, and yes, the October to December authors have recently been voted on. The other two authors for the quarter are Robert Louis Stevenson (I think) and George Eliot. I voted for Singer and Eliot.

I’m making more progress with Roth, and starting to understand what is going on. It’s also helping to watch a Great Courses program on European history called “The Long Nineteenth Century” which also comes as audio. My education was mostly in medieval and Renaissance times, so I’m trying to catch up a bit on modern history—18th century and later. The fiction of Singer and Roth is a good push to learn more about these eras.

>140 dianelouise100: thanks for clarifying that. I didn't make much sense, I blame the long month of 100 plus degrees....

We'll be reading Singer in October; eager to finally read his family moskat and compare it with his brothers book the brothers askenazi

Can one read when receiving bad news that you can do nothing about? I suppose it’s better to try which I always attempt to do.

Depression will bring my reading to a halt, but anxiety - well it’s just too much to take, and I need distraction when I can do nothing about the cause.

I’m about to start Creation Lake, but will it grab me as a Joseph Roth does? I doubt it.

I'm glad to hear the Radetsky March was a hit. It's been sitting on my shelves for three years now. I should dust it off.

>143 kjuliff: Hoping you’ll find Creation Lake sufficiently distracting, look forward to your opinion. And I must eventually get into another Roth, of course I’m thinking The Emperor’s Tomb. I thought the opening chapter of Part III where Roth describes the 83/84 year old Franz Joseph was amazing!

>143 kjuliff: I can read when the news is bad. books have been an escape for me since childhood. I seem to be able to insert myself into the story (if its a good one) and dissapear for a few hours. many times I wish I could jut stay there I get the depression not being able to

where should I start with Joseph Roth? is radetsky march a good start?

>147 cindydavid4: I started with Right and Left which I think might be a good start. But Job, the Story of a Simple Man is pretty good too. I think Roth has more heart than I Singer - there’s something very deep to him which is often the case when artists die young.

The only thing about The Radetsky March as a starting book is that it’s fairly long and takes a few chapters to get into.

ok thanks

>148 kjuliff: " there’s something very deep to him which is often the case when artists die young."

This is a very interesting observation. Are you referring to writers who are sickly in some way and so have an awareness that they're not likely to live long lives and therefore dig deeper into themselves for each work they're able to complete? Or are you thinking of an added poignancy that's added for (and by?) the reader, who has the knowledge that the author being read lived only a short life? Or is it something else obvious that I"m missing? That surely would not be a first!

>150 rocketjk: It’s not the added poignancy of a writer dying young. It’s the artist having such depth of being, having a profound empathy … I can’t find the right words … that they lived a life so hard, brought about by themselves. As if they compacted what could have been a longer life, by their intensity, by putting their whole souls into their work, to such a degree that the emotions led them to end their own lives either directly or indirectly. Or perhaps it wasn’t just their artistic works, but their whole was of living was too much to bear.

I understand Roth’s early death was sue to alcoholism. Van Gogh just couldn’t take the intensity any more. Janis Joplin. I can’t think right now of others, but I feel in Roth’s writings such intensity as if he packs his all into his writings.

>88 kjuliff: I like the premise of this book, A Cage Went in Search of a Bird. And it seems like a good way to get acquainted with new writers. Thanks for sharing.

My blood pressure, normally low 102/70 has skyrocketed. I’ve been under a lot of pressure and had the new covid and flu shots at the same time. My bp is now 169/100. So if you don’t hear from me for a while, you’ll know why.. Hope things improve soon.

oh no! hope things improve; have you seen a dr ?

>154 cindydavid4: No. i can’t think.

Will call cardiologist tomorrow. I can’t hack the NyC ERs alone

Make sure you call 911 if your bp hits 180/120 or higher. Take care.

worried about you. take care

How scary, Kate— I know what you mean about ER’s—but hopefully the cardiologist will get you what you need. Thinking of you!

Kate,
Since we're about the same age, I can tell you that I also had my covid and flu shots recently (though not the same day; did that once, never again). In preparation, I did some poking around the internet and it seems that the covid shot can raise BP. So it may be something completely benign and known. But since you don't know, by all means contact your primary care doc and see. And, of course, keep monitoring. But there may be good light at the end of the tunnel, so don't worry unnecessarily. And take care of yourself.

I’m back - sort of. I’ve been off-line due to illness and a family matter, and have DMs to catch up on as well as all the threads. I’m not 100% but I’ll be checking in. To those who messaged me, a big thank you. I’ll answer soon.

Good to be here again.

take your time, no stress. the threads will be there when you return. hang in there

>161 kjuliff: good to hear.

>163 dianeham: >162 cindydavid4:
Thanks,
I actually started James last night and just finished it. I didn’t enjoy it as much as The Trees , but that’s probably because I haven’t Huckleberry Finn, though I have a very very vague idea as to what it’s about.

I enjoyed the story and the two languages bit, but I didn’t see the humor and irony that I found in The Trees.

>165 kjuliff: Glad you're feeling a bit better. Good to have you back. I would STRONGLY urge you you to read Huckleberry Finn. It's possible you might not like it (though I doubt it), but it's so original and extraordinarily influential that I think it's hard to overstate its importance. And not just to US literature but to world literature generally. My two cents.

>165 kjuliff: now that Ive read the trees, I agree with you; the humor in that one was so on the nose . In James it was my situational. but still love both! BTW thanks for pushing me to read the former, a great read !

>166 Gypsy_Boy: I’ve bought Huckleberry Finn and am only a few chapters in. So far it’s not grabbing me, but I’ll give it more time. I do think however I would have been better off reading it before James.

I’m actually looking forward to Olga Tokarczuk’s The Empusium, and will be interested to experience her nod to The Magic Mountain .

>167 cindydavid4: I've always wondered how Huckleberry Finn would read to someone who is not an American. I'm not sure how long you've lived in the US, but I think to someone born/raised here it must read differently. And yet, its influence seems to widespread that perhaps I'm just wrong. I think it's an interesting topic. I do hope it does grab you at some point soon, though.

My only comment on Tokarczuk is that the more I read of her, the less I like her. I suspect I will pick The Empusium up at some point, but she's not high on my list.

>169 Gypsy_Boy: I think I’ll give up on Huckleberry. I’m finding the writing too meandering and masculine. I’m also finding it not so easy to listen to, as it doesn’t make for smooth listening. I’m having to decipher some of the ungrammatical phrases that Jim and Huckleberry both use. This is odd as I had no problem with either of the dialects in James.

I was trying to remember what my son liked reading around the age of 13 which seems like the age of the expected audience (?). I think he would have found it too slow.

I am trying to finish some books shown in my profile as “currently reading”. I should make a new category - “put aside” as I haven’t been actually reading them. Nor have I discarded them. Many are books I put aside when a book I’ve really wanted has come off hold, or if I couldn’t continue because of my mood.

So I am currently actually reading The Painter of Signs by R.K. Narayan. I love the way Narayan puts the reader into the small Indian villages, in much the same was as Isaac Singer puts one into the shtetls of Eastern Europe pre 1930. It’s something about the simplicity of the detail of village life and physical environment that makes me feel I’m actually there and the rest of the world doesn’t exist.

I find Narayan’s stories soothing in their simplicity and in their evocations of a time long past. I love the way he has his male characters subservient to the women they love. I love his consistency. Something that is lacking in some modern writers, who can surprise when they decide to write using a new (for them) structure that they may or may not, pull off.

>172 kjuliff: I created a tag called "bookmark stuck" for books in which I had made significant progress and still want to read, but stalled for whatever reason.

>171 kjuliff: Kate, I'm sorry to hear that. But I do understand...and who knows, you may someday get the itch to return to it. It's funny, as I think about it, it reminds me of three books I had trouble starting but that I stuck with (I can be pigheaded) and ended up being quite rewarding. The first was Caradog Prichard's One Moonlit Night, the second was Randolph Stow's The Merry-Go-Round in the Sea, and the third Andrei Bely's Petersburg. The first is set in a tiny Welsh village, the second in a tiny Australian village, and the third in Leningrad; all are so deeply situated in their time and place (and in Stow's case, in Australian idioms as well) that they were rough going for a while. I wouldn't have understand a fraction of the little bit that I did in Petersburg without my edition's extensive notes. I finally made my peace with the fact that I'd never truly appreciate or understand them like a "native" would but, though that's sad, I still think I got a good sense of what made each one special and enjoyed all three. Then again, not everything is for everyone and maybe Huckleberry Finn just isn't for you. And I know you've got plenty waiting their turn, so good luck and happy reading!

I joined FB group for Booker fans. I thought it would be interesting to see what a wider audience thought of the Booker long-list. Was I in for a shock.

While many of the members have interesting things to say, the number who don’t understand what fiction is, is surprising. As well, many who don’t understand a book seem to think there’s something wrong with the writer.

One member asked if Creation Lake’s description of early Polynesian sea-faring was true. This was her contribution to the discussion.

Why does it have to be accurate? It’s not even claiming to be. Neanderthals smoking tobacco? Surely that’s a dead giveaway. Dissecting the ideas of a fictional Bruno, fictional activist of the Beat generation, living in a cave and sending out messages by email should be a dead-giveaway.

From the first NF books we read as little children we knew they weren’t meant to be true.

Could the sky fall in? “No little Johnny, it’s just a story”.

But somehow people are dissecting fiction expecting truth and condemning a book if it isn’t accurate to its minutest detail.

Some people have even used google maps to check how long it would take MC Sadie to travel from A to B in souther France. Why did the writer say x when surely it’s y.

Creation Lake is a book that has merit. You don’t have to understand it, but please! I can only quote the brilliant poet, Robert Allen Zimmerman and leave it at that.

Come mothers and fathers
Throughout the land
And don't criticize
What you can't understand
Your sons and your daughters
Are beyond your command
Your old road is rapidly agin'
Please get out of the new one
If you can't lend your hand
For the times they are a-changin'

>175 kjuliff: I abandoned FB reading groups because of the lack of comprehension about books. I then went to Goodreads to track my library and have found the reviews there are much mor comprehensible. Reviews there for Creation Lake in GR I find to be more reasonable.

The main difference I find between LT and GR is that they have far more members reading most everything and they get to new books often before LT. Most often the avg rating for a book is very similar on both platforms.

>176 JoeB1934: Joe, I really only joined the Booker group on FB to see what the wider community thought of the Booker 2024 short-list.

I’m dependent on audio and so Goodreads is not for me as it’s Amazon-based. I get most of my books from National Library Service for the Blind and Print Disabled (NLS). The variety of authors is more extensive than Audible’s which is owned by Amazon.

So I can discuss and read about these on LT which is my site of choice atm.

>177 kjuliff: Kate, I have to think that you already know this, but just in case--and for anyone else who might be interested as well--there's a pretty extensive discussion of the 2024 shortlist on World Literature Forum. You can find it in the large section on prizes, then "Other Prizes," and then "The Booker Prize."

>178 Gypsy_Boy: Thanks. I joined WLF and actually answered a post. Am a little intimidated by some of the members. I need to get up courage to post. But can see it’s a great site though LT more accommodating for the visually impaired. But I like the way it actively discuses books from countries around the world.

I’m trying to complete The Painter of Signs so I can start afresh on a new topic for Autumn/Spring tomorrow. Apologies to those who still use the Fahrenheit system. 😉

>174 Gypsy_Boy: Interesting to read about your experience with Petersburg. I started reading it, found it wasn't working at the time, and set it aside. When I went back to it about 18 months later, I started at the beginning again, and roared right through it. As you say, it was definitely worthwhile. Makes you wonder how many other such titles are languishing around the house!