"It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye."
--Antoine de Saint-Exupery
"Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold."
--Yeats
“True, we [lawyers] build no bridges. We raise no towers. We construct no engines. We paint no pictures - unless as amateurs for our own principal amusement. There is little of all that we do which the eye of man can see. But we smooth out difficulties; we relieve stress; we correct mistakes; we take up other men's burdens and by our efforts we make possible the peaceful life of men in a peaceful state.”
--John W. Davis, founder of Davis Polk & Wardwell
Lord Jim by Joseph Conrad
He jumped . . . jumped! . . and in that moment his life changed . . . irrevocably? One moment he stood on the deck of a ship he believed to be sinking, refusing to abandon her passengers, but in the next he found himself aboard a lifeboat with the rest of the ship's officers. He had jumped, and in his shame at that fact he chose to face alone the court of inquiry that followed. Stripped of his certificate he moved around the far east, trying to have some kind of life, but always his one moment shame kept coming would intrude, forcing him to keep moving. Then one day, in the jungles of a place called Patusan, the opportunity came for a redemption of sorts.
First published in 1900, Conrad's novel turns a seafaring adventure into a story about honor, courage, loyalty and betrayal. Fantastic!
"It'd be nice to please everyone but I thought it would be more interesting to have a point of view." -- Oscar Levant
[Moved this from the Colorado thread]
Thanks for the tip. I see it is likened to Murakami, who I've read fairly extensively, but haven't figured out whether I like him or not. I will add this to my queue.
First up, however, I have promised myself that I will read Stegner's Big Rock Candy Mountain and Recapitulation. There is a void in my life for not having read the two most important novels about SLC.
One thing I have learned in a long life: that all our science, measured against reality, is primitive and childlike -- and yet it is the most precious thing we have.
--Albert Einstein
The fact that life evolved out of nearly nothing, some 10 billion years after the universe evolved out of literally nothing, is a fact so staggering that I would be mad to attempt words to do it justice.
--Richard Dawkins
Be kind to all, for everyone you meet is fighting a great battle.
--Philo
Funny you should mention this. A couple of years ago I was on the Board of the SLC public library. In connection with the hoopla surrounding the centenniel of his birth, there was a push to place a statute on library plaza. There was a lot of objection, and a plaque was agreed upon, which is engraved into the wall on the walkway close to the city and county building close to Leanardo.
I read Big Rock Candy Mountain and Recapitulation (which is mostly autobiography) years ago, and they really bring old SLC (including west second south and Saltair) to life. The SLC of my parents and grandparents. My parents went to East high a decade or so after Stegner and my mother idolized him and all his books. (for by birthday that ended in a 0 a number of years ago, my mother gave me a first edition of BRCM that she found at Sam Weller's and inscribed). Gathering of Zion and Mormon country are also terrific non-fiction about early Utah and LDS church, as you note.
Other than the SLC books, I never liked Stegnar much. I thought Angle of Repose and Crossing to Safety wooden and stilted. He doesn't have Larry McMurtry's or Charles Portris's gift for frontier dialogue, IMHO.
Last edited by concerned; 11-29-2014 at 10:39 AM.
I tend to agree with your assessment of Stegner's fiction. (I've read Portis and McMurtry; well, True Grit and Lonesome Dove and loved them. But my favorite frontier novelist is Cormac. The Border Trilogy and Blood Meridian my be my favorite novels by a living writer.) But Stegner is to Utah what Faulkner is to the Deep South and he could helped increase the University of Utah's mystique had he been promoted as a part of its tradition.
I can tell you have/had a great mother. It's amazing to me people like that of her generation were born and raised in Salt Lake.
Last edited by SeattleUte; 11-30-2014 at 12:04 AM.
One thing I have learned in a long life: that all our science, measured against reality, is primitive and childlike -- and yet it is the most precious thing we have.
--Albert Einstein
The fact that life evolved out of nearly nothing, some 10 billion years after the universe evolved out of literally nothing, is a fact so staggering that I would be mad to attempt words to do it justice.
--Richard Dawkins
Be kind to all, for everyone you meet is fighting a great battle.
--Philo
I agree with you regarding Cormac McCarthy. Like you I've loved everything he's ever written
"Be a philosopher. A man can compromise to gain a point. It has become apparent that a man can, within limits, follow his inclinations within the arms of the Church if he does so discreetly." - The Walking Drum
"And here’s what life comes down to—not how many years you live, but how many of those years are filled with bullshit that doesn’t amount to anything to satisfy the requirements of some dickhead you’ll never get the pleasure of punching in the face." – Adam Carolla
some people do, apparently
http://www.buzzfeed.com/spenceraltho...ird#.ppZxOo7ov
http://www.buzzfeed.com/jarrylee/teq...ird#.vkodJRZRk
she wrote it in the 1950's, before TKAM. It has been sitting in a shoebox for 60 years. I dont see how it can be anything other than a huge letdown. Just hope it doesnt tarnish the original.
Speaking of Time Out of Mind, I see the Sinatra album is getting great reviews. Has anyone ever been so creative into old age? He is 73. Wallace Stevens? Tolstoy? Picasso? Matisse?
Last edited by concerned; 02-03-2015 at 07:35 PM.
I am kind of worried about the new Harper Lee book. I'll hope against hope that it's good.
"It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye."
--Antoine de Saint-Exupery
"Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold."
--Yeats
“True, we [lawyers] build no bridges. We raise no towers. We construct no engines. We paint no pictures - unless as amateurs for our own principal amusement. There is little of all that we do which the eye of man can see. But we smooth out difficulties; we relieve stress; we correct mistakes; we take up other men's burdens and by our efforts we make possible the peaceful life of men in a peaceful state.”
--John W. Davis, founder of Davis Polk & Wardwell
I'm reading "Gray Mountain," by John Grisham. It's my annual dive into escape literature. This one is actually a decent yarn, more believable than Grisham's others. (It might just be that he world of this novel -- Appalachian coal mining country -- is so foreign to me that I don't see the howlers, but still I'm having some guilty fun reading it.)
"It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye."
--Antoine de Saint-Exupery
"Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold."
--Yeats
“True, we [lawyers] build no bridges. We raise no towers. We construct no engines. We paint no pictures - unless as amateurs for our own principal amusement. There is little of all that we do which the eye of man can see. But we smooth out difficulties; we relieve stress; we correct mistakes; we take up other men's burdens and by our efforts we make possible the peaceful life of men in a peaceful state.”
--John W. Davis, founder of Davis Polk & Wardwell
I just finished Gilead by Marilyn Robinson. One of the best books I have ever read. Immersing book that is a page turner but not in the typical sense. If anyone else has read it, I would be interested in opinions on the book. It is unlike anything I have ever read before. It is a gentle story told by an aging father dying of heart issues to his young son, and really re-tells the father's life and his experiences as a minister as well as of his relationship with his own father and grandfather (both also ministers). Fantastic and beautiful.
There is a lot of detail in the book about the eyes of the characters. It is a piercing novel using what we see in the world around us and how religion can help us interpret what we see.
I read that it was this book that inspired TKAMB. Apparently Harper Lee's agent read the prequel and suggested that she should write TKAMB, which she did. I think if it is read as a prequel and that it was setting up the events of TKAMB as flashbacks, then it shouldn't be disappointing. Perhaps it will be interesting to see how Scout deals with the trial as an adult woman.
First Man: The Life of Neil A. Armstrong by James R. Hansen
An excellent biography of the first man to walk on the moon. Armstrong is unique figure in history, but with a quiet personality, he presented a challenge to our understanding of him. As his Apollo II crew mate, Michael Collins, put it: "They say 'no man is an island'; well, Neil is kind of an island. . . . Sometimes what he is thinking and his inner thoughts were more interesting to him than somebody else's thoughts were to him, so why should he leave his island, go wading out into the shallows to shake hands with somebody, when he's perfectly happy back in his little grass hut or wherever." Hansen does as a good a job as possible of taking us to that island, while also addressing the exaggerations and myths that surround the First Man. The book is a must read for those interested in the history of Apollo and the U.S. space program.
"It'd be nice to please everyone but I thought it would be more interesting to have a point of view." -- Oscar Levant
That image of the judge dancing on the table at the end of BM is one of my very favorite images. Nothing else McCarthy writes will be a disappointment to you.
BTW, I went to SU's book reading at Sam Weller's in April, and quite enjoyed meeting him. I am going to read Logos as soon as I finish the one I am currently reading, and will report.
One thing I have learned in a long life: that all our science, measured against reality, is primitive and childlike -- and yet it is the most precious thing we have.
--Albert Einstein
The fact that life evolved out of nearly nothing, some 10 billion years after the universe evolved out of literally nothing, is a fact so staggering that I would be mad to attempt words to do it justice.
--Richard Dawkins
Be kind to all, for everyone you meet is fighting a great battle.
--Philo
I hadn't seen this thread before but always like talking about and finding good books - although I'm an audiobook guy. A Higher Call by Adam Makos and Larry Alexander is one of the best books I've ever read. It is about a B17 pilot that nearly gets shot down over Germany and a pretty amazing story after that. I won't say more so as to not spoil.
I haven't read a ton of war books - I've read sole survivor, No Easy Day and Unbroken, but this was way better than all of those.. It is more about the human side of war, which I liked a lot better. I have no idea how much is revisionist history, but the two main guys involved met back in 2005? and everything in the book seemed to completely jive with their reunion and all. I think they've both died by now.
Currently I'm reading Station Eleven, which got a great score on goodreads so I was hoping for a good post-apocalyptic book. I've hated it so far
Last edited by SavaUte; 05-17-2015 at 01:34 PM.
"It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye."
--Antoine de Saint-Exupery
"Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold."
--Yeats
“True, we [lawyers] build no bridges. We raise no towers. We construct no engines. We paint no pictures - unless as amateurs for our own principal amusement. There is little of all that we do which the eye of man can see. But we smooth out difficulties; we relieve stress; we correct mistakes; we take up other men's burdens and by our efforts we make possible the peaceful life of men in a peaceful state.”
--John W. Davis, founder of Davis Polk & Wardwell
"It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye."
--Antoine de Saint-Exupery
"Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold."
--Yeats
“True, we [lawyers] build no bridges. We raise no towers. We construct no engines. We paint no pictures - unless as amateurs for our own principal amusement. There is little of all that we do which the eye of man can see. But we smooth out difficulties; we relieve stress; we correct mistakes; we take up other men's burdens and by our efforts we make possible the peaceful life of men in a peaceful state.”
--John W. Davis, founder of Davis Polk & Wardwell
Blood Meridian is and isn't representative of is style. All of his Southwest novels (I haven't read the earlier ones set in the deep south) echo the King James Version vernacular and are fraught with Biblical allusions. There is always horrific cruelty and violence, and the natural descriptions and violence that are absolutely cinematic. I think the other novels have a more hopeful view of human nature. The horrors are punctuated by surprising acts of kindness -- usually by women. There is no kindness in Blood Meridian. It's all ISIS with six shooters, bowie knives, and riding horses in the old southwest. And the other novels have more traditionally personal narratives driven by characters we come to care about. Blood Meridian has a timeless, cosmic quality like the Iliad or the Bible or Shakespeare (that may sound over the top but I didn't invent the comparison). You never really get any internal monologue, like scripture. "The kid" is nominally the protagonist, but we're never in his head, the POV is essentially omniscient, and there is nothing to like or care for about the kid. He's as bad as any of the others, really.
All of McCarthy's novels have embedded narratives. The exMormon's story in The Crossing is one of my favorites (it has absolutely nothing to do with Mormonism per se; that name comes out of the blue and is never explained, which is kind of cool). Blood Meridian and the Crossing are my two favorites. His three most successful commercially have been The Road, which won the Pulitzer, No Country for Old Men, which the Coen Brothers made into a Best Picture, and All the Pretty Horses, which won the National Book Award and originally made him famous (these were his most successful at least at the outset; Blood Meridian started very slow, received mixed reviews and didn't sell, eventually became a cult classic, and now is regarded as a mainstream classic and is widely studied in universities; Harold Bloom really attracted attention to it by calling it the best novel written by any American living writer). And I think they are his three weakest novels that I have read.
I love Cormac McCarthy, and his books have really influenced my thinking and writing, were part of why I decided I wanted to write. I note that he writes in genres that are disfavored by the literary powers that be -- westerns and sci fi -- and is regarded as maybe America's greatest living writer. I wonder if he's got any more left in him. I hope so. The Judge make Blood Meridian truly special; he is the personification of pure evil, and all-knowing and terrifically witty and even sometimes funny, and thoroughly grounded in his own way, which is sui generis. The Comanche ambush is the greatest war scene ever.
Last edited by SeattleUte; 06-03-2015 at 07:56 AM.
One thing I have learned in a long life: that all our science, measured against reality, is primitive and childlike -- and yet it is the most precious thing we have.
--Albert Einstein
The fact that life evolved out of nearly nothing, some 10 billion years after the universe evolved out of literally nothing, is a fact so staggering that I would be mad to attempt words to do it justice.
--Richard Dawkins
Be kind to all, for everyone you meet is fighting a great battle.
--Philo
I may have posted this elsewhere but Blood Meridian just got to be too much for me. I quit about halfway through and probably won't pick it up again. I will try some other McCarthy novels, however.
"It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye."
--Antoine de Saint-Exupery
"Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold."
--Yeats
“True, we [lawyers] build no bridges. We raise no towers. We construct no engines. We paint no pictures - unless as amateurs for our own principal amusement. There is little of all that we do which the eye of man can see. But we smooth out difficulties; we relieve stress; we correct mistakes; we take up other men's burdens and by our efforts we make possible the peaceful life of men in a peaceful state.”
--John W. Davis, founder of Davis Polk & Wardwell
Well, technically, Harold Bloom said BM was the best American novel of the last 50 years, not ever and ever.
BTW, I am halfway through Logos (Jacob just got captured by the Romans), and have to say I am really enjoying it.
One thing I have learned in a long life: that all our science, measured against reality, is primitive and childlike -- and yet it is the most precious thing we have.
--Albert Einstein
The fact that life evolved out of nearly nothing, some 10 billion years after the universe evolved out of literally nothing, is a fact so staggering that I would be mad to attempt words to do it justice.
--Richard Dawkins
Be kind to all, for everyone you meet is fighting a great battle.
--Philo
I finished A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens yesterday. Simply magnificent.
"It'd be nice to please everyone but I thought it would be more interesting to have a point of view." -- Oscar Levant