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Best book you have read
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Piwin
Posts: 3559
Joined: Feb. 9 2016
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 RE: Best book you have read. (in reply to gerundino63)
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Citadelle by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. Not sure it's been translated though, nor do I even know whether I'd recommend it (it's not a polished work, as the author died before he could finish it) but, well, that's the one that left the longest lasting impression.
By the same author, you might try Wind, sand and stars (French:Terre des hommes), which I know has been translated and is well worth the read.
Of what I've read this year, I'd say the one that stands out the most in my memory is Victor Pelevin's The sacred book of the werewolf. It left an impression alright, although, to be honest, as with every other book by him that I've read, that impression is "What the hell did I just read?" 6 months later and I'm still wondering what on earth was up with that book, but I did enjoy it. Go figure.
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"Anything you do can be fixed. What you cannot fix is the perfection of a blank page. What you cannot fix is that pristine, unsullied whiteness of a screen or a page with nothing on it—because there’s nothing there to fix."
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Date Sep. 13 2019 0:27:52
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BarkellWH
Posts: 3458
Joined: Jul. 12 2009
From: Washington, DC
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RE: Best book you have red. (in reply to gerundino63)
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A work that had a profound effect on me was Lawrence Durrell's Alexandria Quartet, a tetralogy of interconnected novels that Durrell wrote in which he used the principle of relativity as the basis for recounting the same events from different perspectives. Durrell published "Justine," "Balthazar," "Mountolive," and "Clea," and he lays them out in an interesting way, using pre-war and war-time Alexandria, Egypt as the backdrop for events.
Durrell's Alexandria is populated with a cosmopolitan set of characters that includes Arabs, Greeks, Armenians, and Jews, as well as the British protagonists. Although it is as much a product of Durrell's imagination as it is of actual pre-war Alexandria, I think it fairly describes Alexandria before Nasser's takeover of Egypt and expulsion of pretty much all of the non-Arab population. The writing is gorgeous. Durrell is a painter with words. And as the sequence of novels unfolds, it is interesting to find that what one thought occurred during an incident in "Justine," to use an example, was not what happened at all, and one finds in "Balthazar" that a completely different incident occurred than originally appeared to be the case. The story lines involving the various protagonists are interesting, covering everything from the nature of love to some of the darker aspects of Gnosticism.
For entertaining and thought-provoking reading, however, nothing beats the short stories of the Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges. His stories, which center on appearance vs. reality, the doppelganger, mirrors, labyrinths, infinite libraries, alephs, as well as gauchos and knifefighters, are a real treat. I re-read them about every six or seven years and enjoy them as much as I did the first time, many years ago. If I had one book to take with me alone on a desert island, it would be the collected stories of Jorge Luis Borges.
Bill
_____________________________
And the end of the fight is a tombstone white,
With the name of the late deceased,
And the epitaph drear, "A fool lies here,
Who tried to hustle the East."
--Rudyard Kipling
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Date Sep. 13 2019 14:53:35
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Richard Jernigan
Posts: 3430
Joined: Jan. 20 2004
From: Austin, Texas USA
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RE: Best book you have red. (in reply to gerundino63)
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If you haven’t done it already, you must read “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn,” by Mark Twain. Structured as picaresque, it tells of young Huckleberry and the runaway slave Jim, who raft down the Mississippi from Missouri to New Orleans and Jim’s freedom.
Twain’s superb but easygoing humor keeps the reader entertained, while Huck and Jim traverse the 19th century heartland of America, its manners, foibles, small time crooks, civic leaders and ordinary citizens.
The entire book is a narration of the universal racism of the time, whose consequences I saw as a boy two generations later. Thus it is a tragicomedy, with humor and a “happy ending.” But one lays the book down with a sense of darkness.
To my mind, “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” is the Great American Novel, long sought but unrecognized in its day, and Twain is our greatest writer so far.
Another recommended cultural experience is the sight of the Mississippi River. I remember vividly my first view of it 75 years ago, as the train crossed the bridge at Memphis on a bright moonlit night. It still moves me to see it. At Memphis it is a mile wide. It gets bigger downstream. Its huge mass, rapid current and irresistible force are some of the rawest displays of nature’s power.
Good reading!
RNJ
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Date Sep. 13 2019 22:06:31
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BarkellWH
Posts: 3458
Joined: Jul. 12 2009
From: Washington, DC
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RE: Best book you have red. (in reply to Richard Jernigan)
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quote:
If you haven’t done it already, you must read “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn,” by Mark Twain. Structured as picaresque, it tells of young Huckleberry and the runaway slave Jim, who raft down the Mississippi from Missouri to New Orleans and Jim’s freedom.
Twain’s superb but easygoing humor keeps the reader entertained, while Huck and Jim traverse the 19th century heartland of America, its manners, foibles, small time crooks, civic leaders and ordinary citizens.
The entire book is a narration of the universal racism of the time, whose consequences I saw as a boy two generations later. Thus it is a tragicomedy, with humor and a “happy ending.” But one lays the book down with a sense of darkness.
To my mind, “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” is the Great American Novel, long sought but unrecognized in its day, and Twain is our greatest writer so far.
Another recommended cultural experience is the sight of the Mississippi River. I remember vividly my first view of it 75 years ago, as the train crossed the bridge at Memphis on a bright moonlit night. It still moves me to see it. At Memphis it is a mile wide. It gets bigger downstream. Its huge mass, rapid current and irresistible force are some of the rawest displays of nature’s power.
Good reading!
I couldn't agree more with your assessment of "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" and Mark Twain, Richard. I have always considered "Huckleberry Finn" as one of two candidates for the title, "The Great American Novel," the other being "Moby Dick, " by Herman Melville. The opening sentence of "Moby Dick"-- "Call me Ishmael"-- is one of the great lines in literature. The whaling ship is a microcosm of many races, discoveries, and truth as the crew perceives it. Although Ishmael initially is afraid of Queequeg (a harpooner) as a tattooed cannibal, he soon decides, "Better sleep with a sober cannibal than a drunken Christian."
Back to Twain, his friendship with Ulysses S. Grant is one of the more moving aspects of his life. Grant, of course, was the great General who won the Civil War and later served two terms as president. He had lost his money in bad investments and was convinced by Twain to write his memoirs, which even today are considered beautifully written. Mark Twain published Grant's memoirs and arranged the publicity that led to their sale. Because of Twain's efforts, Grant left his wife a secure future, although he died of throat cancer just days after completing the memoirs.
I grew up in Phoenix, Arizona and had never been around blacks, as there were none in the schools I attended. At the age of 20, I joined the Air Force, and after basic training was sent to Keesler Air Force Base in Biloxi, Mississippi for seven months of training in intelligence gathering to man "listening posts" overseas. Biloxi was my first experience in the South. This was 1963-64, and there were water fountains and public rest rooms labeled "Whites" and "Colored," and one dared not use the wrong one. It was a shock to me at the time.
While at Keesler AFB, I made several trips to New Orleans, which was only 90 miles away. It was a revelation for me, too, to see the Mississippi River. I met a girl who lived in the town of Gretna, across the Mississippi River from New Orleans. She invited me to her home for dinner and we had a few dates, but of course it ended, as it should have. Germany and Pakistan awaited my assignments.
Bill
_____________________________
And the end of the fight is a tombstone white,
With the name of the late deceased,
And the epitaph drear, "A fool lies here,
Who tried to hustle the East."
--Rudyard Kipling
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Date Sep. 14 2019 16:26:21
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Richard Jernigan
Posts: 3430
Joined: Jan. 20 2004
From: Austin, Texas USA
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RE: Best book you have red. (in reply to BarkellWH)
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quote:
ORIGINAL: BarkellWH
I grew up in Phoenix, Arizona and had never been around blacks, as there were none in the schools I attended. At the age of 20, I joined the Air Force, and after basic training was sent to Keesler Air Force Base in Biloxi, Mississippi for seven months of training in intelligence gathering to man "listening posts" overseas. Biloxi was my first experience in the South. This was 1963-64, and there were water fountains and public rest rooms labeled "Whites" and "Colored," and one dared not use the wrong one. It was a shock to me at the time.
Bill
I went to school in Oklahoma City, San Antonio, Anchorage Alaska, and graduated from high school in a Washington DC suburb in 1955. Though there were plenty of blacks around, except in Alaska, there were none in my segregated schools.
The only blacks whose acquaintance I made were servants.
Some time in about 1953 my father came home to dinner, a formal affair with white table cloth, sterling silverware and English bone China. I'm sure he and my mother had discussed the evening's conversation in advance. And I'm also sure that at least my mother had assured our black maid and cook they could stand in the doorway and listen.
Dad said, "I saw the President today."
Mom asked, "What did Ike have to say?"
"He wants Bolling to be the first integrated Air Force base." Truman had signed the executive order integrating the armed sevices, but the military had slow-walked it with studies, small scale trials and the like.
"How did you respond?"
"I told Ike I thought you can't legislate human relations." It was code for favoring segregation, though I'm sure Dad meant it literally as well. He was an eleventh generation white southerner. Both of his grandfathers had owned slaves and fought for the Confederacy.
"...and what did Ike have to say?"
"He said he thought someone of my background was ideally suited for the task. So I want you boys to put aside any personal feelings you may have, and help with the job."
He didn't know what our personal feelings were. One of my mother's grandfathers and two great uncles had fought for the Union. Her father was a William Jennings Bryan Democrat, who didn't hesitate to call himself a Socialist. No racist remark in our house passed without a gentle, respectful, but firm rejoinder.
Dad's racism was not the hateful kind I had seen often enough. Rather it was the paternalistic variety of his social class. He thought blacks were inferior, they needed to be taken care of, and he didn't want them reducing the effectiveness of his command.
When he met the cream of the crop of the black Air Force, his attitude completely reversed. He was impressed by their abilities and attitudes, and valued their experience and advice. I have always admired him for it.
I still didn't know any black kids. All 14 generals who lived on our street were white. We generals' teenage kids stuck together.
The first black people I got to know were the first black undergraduates admitted to the University of Texas, after the school lost a lawsuit. The black students were a lively, impressive and fun bunch of people to know.
After Dad died, we were given a tape of a TV interview. The presenter asked Dad, "You knew some of the great leaders of WW II. Who was the greatest?" Dad knew Eisenhower, served for a year on MacArthur's staff at the beginning of the Occupation of Japan, knew Bradley, Patton, Hap Arnold, etc. He served as Nate Twining's deputy in Alaska. While the first five Chiefs of Staff of the Air Force were captain and majors, he was a lieutenant stationed with them. Some of them were like uncles to my brother and me.
He answered without hesitation, "Eisenhower, without a doubt."
"Why do you say that, Sir?"
"When Ike asked you to do something, you wanted to do it."
RNJ
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Date Sep. 17 2019 21:26:38
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