A Work in Progress

August 16: Reading Notes

My niece, who will be entering eighth grade in less than a week, has been lamenting the fact that summer is quickly coming to an end.  I, of course, have been skipping a joyful beat as I am finally going on vacation in also less than a week.  A couple of nights ago she was wondering aloud why every adult she talks to seems to question her on when she's starting school, which is her least favorite topic of conversation, but the only one everyone seems interested in talking about.  I joked it was because parents are probably happy to send the kids back off to school rather than have them hanging about the house bored all day.  I was met with a stony look--just kidding, I told her. 

Aside from the hope/promise of cooler weather to come, I love fall.  I love brisk mornings and sunny warm afternoons, the rustle of falling leaves--I'm all ready for Indian Summer.  Of course that means we need to first have some steady cool weather and we are slowly getting there.  Fall is my favorite season, and not just for the (finally) pleasant weather.  There is something exciting about the idea of a new school year.  And while my student days are long over, you might know that I work at a university library.  I love seeing all the new students arrive, even if they make me feel older and older each year.  I love hearing the marching band practicing outside when I am leaving work.  All those books and pencils and school supplies in the stores give me a happy tingle at the idea of new beginnings and new opportunities, which for me fall seems to inspire almost more than at any other time of the year.

Fall also means I reassess my reading.  I hesitate to say reading plans as my reading is usually all over the place since I start on one path and then branch off quickly as each new book points me in a different direction.  I mostly like to look at my reading pile(s) and decide which books I really am going to make an attempt at finishing (I have lots of half-read books sitting by my bedside ), make a list and then work my way through them (so I can start fresh in the new year).  I've also been looking through old posts from earlier this year contemplating what I had thought I might read, like this list, or this reading challenge and wonder just what happened.  I do tend to stray in my reading, but that's okay.  The beauty of not being in school is knowing I can go where my reading whims take me and not get penalized for not finishing something I started.  Besides there is still plenty of time to accomplish a few things should I really feel the desire to cross off a few books on the lists I've made.  And then there is Carl's RIP reading challenge to look forward to next month, which I have already started thinking about (one of the few reading challenges I actually manage to stick with and finish each year).

But in the short term, I think August is not going to be a good reading month for me.  It's already halfway through the month and I've not really finished many books--too many distractions.  Even with an upcoming vacation, and maybe because of it I've not had as much time to devote to reading.  Work has been busy with my breaks and lunchtimes given over to other things (for me this is usually prime reading time), and I rarely get to read in the evenings.  I have read two books so far this month and hope to finish two more before I leave on vacation.  My current reads at the moment consist of only Tana French's new novel, Broken Harbor, Elizabeth Chadwick's The Falcons of Montabard (the two books I am furiously reading) with brief dips into Dorothy Sayers' The Nine Tailors.  None of my usual bookish grazings right now.

Tana French pretty much has me hooked.  I've read all of her previous novels and at this point I'll get in line at the library for anything else she writes without even worrying about what the story is about.  The story is almost incidental really.  If you've read her you know her books aren't necessarily sequels, but she will take a secondary character from a previous novel and move him or her into the spotlight in the next book.  This time around the main character is "Scorcher", Mick Kennedy.  I wasn't particularly interested or impressed by him in her last novel (he seemed way too uptight), but he's actually quite interesting this time out, or the story is simply well done (probably a bit of both really).  It's a library book with a long line of readers mentally telling me to hurry up as they want the book next.  I'm also thoroughly enjoying The Falcons of Montabard set in the Holy Land in the 1100s.  It puts me in the mood for more historical fiction.  The only downside (if you can call it that) is that reading it makes me hungry.  The characters are always eating and drinking.  I want some of that sherbet ice drink they drink to cool off--I'm sure it would help with the heat here, too.  And the Sayers is my whim of the moment book.  I started it earlier this summer but got sidetracked.  A little cozy mystery started to appeal all of a sudden, and rather than fish out a new book to start, Lord Peter was just waiting for me to read on.

So things are going to be a little wonky this month.  I'm still shuffling books around for my vacation reads pile.  I've been picking the brains of a few of you trying to decide just which books to take with me, and think I once again have things narrowed down to just a few.  I'm not sure how much reading time I'll actually have, but hope to put those plane rides and airport time to good use.  More on what I've been looking at (and will eventually choose) later.  So, back to school sort of means back to the books for me, too!  There will be plenty of room for whim, but it'll be time to crack down a bit on finishing things up, too.

Teaser Tuesday: Nature Writing

A couple of years ago I had this grand plan where I was going to read an essay a week and write about it.  I made it through just over half the year before I began wavering and gave it up, though I have often thought of revamping that project.  A couple of years previous to that I read a short story a week and made it through the entire year and was quite pleased with myself.  Not only because I persevered with one of my reading projects, but I discovered how much I loved reading short stories.  I read at least fifty-two stories (and probably more since some weeks I wrote about more than one story).  Maybe I should revamp that project! 

In the short term I'll stick with my weekly mythology reading, since I am so close to finishing, but I've been contemplating what I should follow it up with.  It's amazing how much you can accomplish by setting a task for yourself to read and write about a subject or genre or form of writing.  Even if the writing isn't particularly (in my case anyway) critical, but more a rehash of what I read and what I learned from it or experienced by reading it.  Or just a reflection of what I read.

I am going somewhere with all this, and it's not more reading plans, though it's good to think about where I've gone this year and where I want to go with my reading.  The thing about essays is I found I really like nature writing.  Some of the best essays I read were by nature writers like Loren Eiseley, Rachel Carson or Gretel Ehrlich.  My diary reading, which got off to such a great start earlier this year, has slowed down considerably over the summer.  I had been reading the first of Frances Patridge's WWII diaries, and while it was interesting there were lots of references to people and events with which I didn't have any familiarity.  I sort of lost the thread and so set it aside.  I can't remember what I picked up next, but again it was the wrong book for the wrong mood and moment, but then my eye was caught by Roger Deakin's Notes from Walnut Tree Farm.  A good way to combine two interests--diaries and also nature writing. 

Notes from Walnut Tree Farm is really delightful reading.  The entries are arranged by month and each is really just a snippet--an observation or meditation or an impression of Deakin's life and the natural world around him on his farm in Sussex.  It's the perfect book to dip into just before bedtime as the passages are often short.  I came across one that I particularly enjoyed and think you'll appreciate, too, so wanted to share it here.  It's a very short teaser:

"Books are like seeds: they come to life when you read them, and grow spines and leaves.  I need trees around me as I need to have books around me, so building bookshelves is something like planting trees."

Isn't that wonderful?  I wholeheartedly concur with him on both counts!

On a related topic, though I'll warn anyone who might happen to be in my postal reading group to stop reading here, since I am going to mention the book I just received in the last mailing.  I'm going to be reading it very soon, and I am quite looking forward to it.  When I opened the parcel the book was totally new to me (part of the reason I love my postal reading group).  I'd not heard of Gavin Maxwell nor his book, Ring of the Bright Water.  I have a feeling there are going to be a few of you who have either read it or have at least heard of it.  It seems like one of those much loved books that I am happy to have placed in my hands even if so much later than when it was discovered by other readers.

Maxwell was born in 1914 and wrote Ring of Bright Water in 1960.  The book is about his life in a "lonely cottage on the north-west coast of Scotland, about animals that have shared it with him, and about others who are his only immediate neighbors in a landscape of rock and sea."  I think Maxwell writes particularly about the otters he adopted (or maybe they adopted him) when he was a boy, but it's also about the greater natural world, one that intrigues me (the solitude sounds blissful to me). 

I'm looking forward to getting back to a few books that deal with the natural world.  Now that the heat of summer has backed off a bit, maybe I can even spend time outside again and enjoy it. 

Just curious, do you have a favorite nature book?

Mythology: Hercules

A hero and a heroine of Greek mythology today.  First up, Hercules.  Last week I read about Theseus, famed and beloved Athenian hero.  What Theseus is to Athens, Hercules is to the rest of Greece.  While Theseus was not only brave but also compassionate, Hercules had unflinching courage and supreme self-confidence to say nothing of his immense strength.  However, unlike Theseus who went on to become a ruler, that was not in Hercule's destiny.  He was more a brawns over brains sort of hero.  His heart was in the right place, but his emotions would win out over his intellect.  And his massive strength all too often got the better of him and resulted in overpowering and occasionally killing those who didn't deserve it.  Hercules always tried to show proper penitence, though.

In a way Hercules had the odds stacked against him since he was a son of Zeus and the wife of a distinguished Theban general named Alcmena.  Ever jealous, Hera took her anger of Zeus's infidelity out on Hercules and would cause him much heartache in his life and ultimately cause his death however inadvertently.  Hera caused Hercules to go mad and kill his wife and sons, those he was most devoted to.  Even though he was out of his mind when he killed them he went to Delphi to consult the oracle and find a way to purify himself of his awful deed.

The priestess sent him to his cousin Eurystheus, King of Mycenae, and do whatever he was told.  If anyone could purge Hercules of his sins, it was Eurystheus.  He gave Hercules twelve all but impossible tasks, or what are known as the "Labors of Hercules".  They required great strength and many took years to accomplish.  One of them was to kill the many-headed Hydra.  Almost as fast as one head was lopped off two more would grow in its place.  He eventually killed it by searing the neck after each head was chopped off using a brand given to him by his nephew.  

Hercules had a great many adventures.  He sailed with Jason on the Argo, but when his armor bearer fell overboard and was lost Hercules's grief overtook him and he could not go on.  He saved Theseus from the underworld.  He even bested Atlas when Atlas tried to dump the world on Hercule's shoulders.  Always, though, Hercules would be wounded emotionally by his actions when he unintentionally caused someone's death.  In his anguish he asked that a great pyre be created so he could end his life.  Although this sounds like a sad end to his story, he was taken to heaven where he reconciled with Hera and was allowed to marry her daughter Hebe.  Not such a bad ending after all.

And finally a story of a heroine and what's more even something of a warrior (what's the feminine version of warrior?  Warrioress?).  You have to like Atalanta since she wasn't a goddess just an ordinary woman who was left to die on a mountainside thanks to her father's disappointment in having a daughter rather than a son.  She was taken in by a she-bear and grew to be strong and courageous.  Unfortunately there seems to be a little uncertainty about Atalanta.  She may have sailed with Jason on the Argo as well, though maybe not, too.  She did hunt the Calydonian boar (her most famous escapade?), which was sent by Artemis when the King of Oeneus failed to send sacrifices.  Atalanta was the only woman among many men to hunt the wild boar, and while her spear thrust wasn't the one to finish the animal off, she was the first to strike it.

At this time Atalanta caught the eye of one of the young men, Meleager, but she swore she would never marry.  She said if any man could beat her in a foot race she would consent to marry him, but none could run faster.  It was only with the meddling of Aphrodite did the young man win a race against Atalanta.  He had three golden apples, which were so beautiful that any human who saw them would immediately want them.  As the two raced, Meleager threw each down in turn.  When Atalanta bent to pick up each apple he was able not only to catch her but beat her as well.  So she was his.  Story has it, though, that ultimately the two were turned into lions because of some affront to the gods.  So typical in Greek mythology!

I'm past the halfway mark mark and am making steady progress now through the stories in Edith Hamilton's Mythology.  Next week: The Trojan War.

Koula by Menis Koumandareas

Greek author Menis Koumandareas's 1978 novel, Koula, is a spare and rather understated story about an affair between an older woman and younger man.  Since I've been reading Greek mythology (with dips into a little nonfiction as well), I've become interested in reading a few Greek authors (and not just books set in Greece but written in English).  A little online browsing netted me Koula, which was published in English (translated by Kay Cicellis) by the Dalkey Archive Press, which has a reputation for bringing out not only works in translation but authors who are writing cutting edge fiction.  

Whatever the publisher's reputation, Koula is not a difficult read.  Coming in at less than a hundred pages, Koula is more of a novella and a snapshot of a moment in life.  Don't expect much to happen or any surprising twists and turns or shocking moments as this is more a story about the interior lives of the characters, particularly of Koula.  If fiction imitates life, Koula is a good representative story.  Koula is an average, middle class, middle-aged wife.  She works in a tax office at a job she's very good at.  She's not really ambitious, but she's conscientious.  Her home life sounds on the bland side.  She's mother to two young daughters and her marriage has settled into a comfortable but lackluster relationship.

Earlier in her marriage she had thought of asking for a divorce.  She knew she was living with someone she didn't love, didn't even much care for.  When she asked for advice from a lawyer, hard reality set in instead.

"When I told him how I felt, he laughed and patted my shoulder.  Come on, Koula, you're behaving like a schoolgirl; one's not supposed to be madly in love with one's husband or wife; marriage is simply a matter of habit, and you'd better get used to the idea; that's what happiness is all about, haven't you found that out yet, you little fool?'

So when she spots the same young man on her nightly subway ride home, and their eyes meet and lock, an instant attraction forms.  And by all appearances its reciprocated.  He is sitting in the same spot every night and as the car empties she takes the seat across from him and eventually they strike up a conversation.

They know where things are headed even without really talking about what they're feeling.  It's as if the relationship from total strangers to lovers is a natural progression.  Dmitri is a college student, who's closer in age to her daughters than to herself, but it doesn't matter.  Dmitri has a thing for older women and has even taken money for favors rendered on occasion.  The affair is like a sparkler on the fourth of July--a great burst of energy that flairs and then eventually dims.  For Koula, and this is her story told from her perspective, the affair is intense and all consuming.  With Dmitri, and somewhat out of character, she goes to seedy bars and clandestine apartments which gives the affair veneer of sordid illicitness. 

This story is less about the physical, which is actually downplayed, than about the internal struggle.  So much of the story is played out in the subway, it's not surprising that that's where Koula has her moment of epiphany.  In the darkness of a power cut she finds she regains her lucidity and life turns once again sharply into focus. 

Koumandareas has won the Greek National Book Award three times.  Koula is, I believe, his only work that has been published in the US. 

Used Bookstore Goodness (or badness)

I really must learn to not use the word 'bad' in a sentence with the word 'books'.  There's no such thing, right?  Last Friday I spent the afternoon with a friend who was visiting from out of town.  Not only did I get to see an old friend who I don't get to spend much time with these days, but as we were strolling about downtown we wandered into my favorite used bookstore.  I miss having friends who live close enough to hang with, so it was a doubly good day to not only be able to chat, but also to do a little book browsing shopping as well. 

As you can see I had a little splurge (she had far more self control than I did as she left with only two books).  Normally I wouldn't say bookstore badness, but my binge comes right before my vacation when I am supposed to be saving money for my trip not spending it.  I found such great deals, and such great books, however, that I couldn't resist and leave them for someone else to snap up!

So, top to bottom, let me share my goodies:

The Campaign for Domestic Happiness by Isabella Beeton -- I love this Penguin Great Food series and would love to have them all.  Of course Mrs. Beeton is the famous Victorian woman who loaned her name to the cookery book that was probably in every British household at the time.

I think I already own both of these Viragos but as I rarely see any locally I couldn't pass them by.  The Way Things Are by E.M. Delafield (of The Provincial Lady fame).  This is a story about a woman questioning her marriage.  And I must jump start my poor Molly Keane reading project.  Full House is several books down the road and sounds like a good family drama.

I admit it is in part the attraction of the lovely cover art that made me pick up Margaret Drabble's A Day in the Life of a Smiling Woman: Complete Short Stories.  Of course the fact that this is a collection of short stories helped.  Drabble is A.S. Byatt's sister and I've also been very curious to read her work and compare the sisters' styles.

I really enjoyed reading Elspeth Huxley's Love Among the Daughters last year and have wanted to read her other memoirs.  How handy to have two volumes of them in my possession now!  The Flame Trees of Thika is about her life in Kenya as a child and The Mottled Lizard is a sequel about Kenya after the war.  Love Among the Daughters comes sometime after that when Huxley was in England and America in the 1920s.

Anne-Marie MacDonald's The Way the Crow Flies set in Cold War Canada will be part of my Canadian Literature reading project.  I read MacDonald's Fall on Your Knees several years ago and remember liking it very much.

I checked out Elena Mauli Shapiro's 13 rue Therese from the library when it first came out, but never got around to reading it.  I'm happy to have this pristine copy since it's essentially an illustrated novel  about a box of relics found in a Parisian apartment building dating back to the years after WWI.  I love the premise.

And the best find of the day--a brand spanking new copy of Kate Summerscale's Mrs. Robinson's Disgrace.  I'd been holding off buying it since it is only in hardcover.  I don't think this book had even been cracked open and I got it for less than a third of the price.  I've heard good things about it and can't wait to read it.  I'll be saving it (well all of them really) until after my vacation.  For some reason Victorian Literature seems perfect for fall/winter reading.  Not sure why, but I like the idea of getting cozy with a book about (or from) the Victorian world when the leaves are turning and falling and the thermometer begins to dip a bit at night.

Happily we have finally gotten a little relief from the heat.  It's still in the mid-80s (28C), but a huge improvement over what it was like just a few days ago (literally a twenty degree difference!).  I've turned off the air conditioning and have opened windows and feel so much better--not much fun peeling yourself out of your chair.  I'm hoping this weekend will be equally as pleasant.  I plan on spending time with my San Francisco guidebooks and hopefully finishing a book or two (or at least making some serious progress in them).

Have a great bookish weekend everyone.

Divorce Islamic Style by Amara Lakhous

I hate writing about books I've read when they're not close at hand, but as I had to return Divorce Islamic Style by Amara Lakhous to the library yesterday (they have this funny rule about returning books after a set period of time), let me see what I can pull from my memory.  I've gotten a little lazy about taking notes as I read, which is too bad in this case as there were some wonderfully quotable lines I would have liked to share.  Lakhous was born in Algiers but now lives in Italy and he reminds me a bit of his main character, Christian (a.k.a. Issa).   

Divorce Islamic Style (Divorzio all'islamica a viale marconi, translated by Ann Goldstein) is a little gem of a novel.  Lakhous touches upon so many interesting and topical subjects, many of them could easily fall into the realm of the controversial, but he writes with such a lightness of touch that anything heavy is balanced out with humor and subtlety.  Not exactly laugh out loud humor but a levity that makes the story a delight to read even while the story makes you think (as well as be entertained). 

Contemporary Rome is a melting pot of peoples of different ethnic and religious backgrounds.  Christian, or Issa as he's known, knows this is a sign of the future.  Sicilian by birth, but of Tunisian heritage, he can speak flawless Arabic.  This talent combined with an appearance that allows him to pass as a recent immigrant attracts the attention of the Italian secret service who talk him into going undercover in a neighborhood of Rome knows as Little Cairo.  There's talk of a possible terrorist plot and Christian is the perfect candidate to infiltrate the community and suss out the probable perpetrators.

So Christian becomes Issa, a newly arrived immigrant from Tunisia who is looking for a place to live, as well as a job but without the benefit of papers to do it legally.  Little Cairo is a neighborhood of mostly, but not exclusively, Egyptian immigrants.  Terrorists in their midst?  Perhaps, but mostly Issa finds hardworking immigrants just trying to survive and with not much to show for their efforts.  He spends much of his time in a local cafe on the viale Marconi where he makes endless phone calls to a fictional family in Tunisia and tries to make friends with the locals.  He seems to spend at least as much time making friends and trying to help those in the immigrant community as trying to find out who the terrorists are, which puts him at odds with his role there.

Issa's path crosses with that of a young, married woman from Egypt known as Sofia, though really her name is Safia. It seems no one in her adopted country can get her proper name right, so Sofia it is.  She had dreamed of a better life in Italy, a place she could remove her veil and live in a more western fashion, but her dream was smashed by her conservative husband, Felice.  At home Felice was trained as an architect, but in Italy he can only find work as a pizza chef.  He's adamant about Sofia staying at home to raise their daughter, but Sofia runs a clandestine hair cutting business, work at which she is very talented and had hoped to practice out in the open.

Both Issa and Sofia tell the story in first person in alternating chapters.  They each tell their own story, but their stories are really part of a greater immigrant story.  It's fascinating but also a little heartbreaking.  Surely it's a story told over and over again through time however varied.  Here there is the added perspective of it being a story told about immigrants who are mostly followers of Islam in a world where a woman in a veil is viewed by Italians as practically a terrorist herself.  Little matter to them that she'd prefer not to wear the veil at all and while respectful of her culture is also critical of it, too.

Lakhous does a great job of characterizing the life of an immigrant--showing their desire to create a better life but dealing with prejudices and road blocks thrown in their paths not only by government officials but by others inside and outside their own community.  And for the immigrant there is the added pressure of maintaining an appearance to their families back home of success, having arrived in the land of their dreams but really only living a borderline sort of life.  Lakhous also plays with the idea of identity, each character having more than one persona--who he or she really is but also how he or she is actually perceived and who he or she presents to the world.  There are lots of interesting juxtapositions playing off each other.

I make this sound much more melancholy than it is.  It's all really very clever and very well done.  I liked it so much I immediately ordered his first novel, Clash of Civilizations Over an Elevator in Piazza Vittorio, which I am looking forward to reading.  Divorce Islamic Style, by the way, is published by Europa Editions, one of my favorite small presses.  They consistently put out fresh new (and unusual) international fiction.  I can't think of a book they've published that I've read and didn't like.  I've amassed a pile of their titles and perhaps it's time to pull another one from the stack to read now.

Bookish Cravings (In search of a book . . .)

Do you ever have bookish cravings?  I have them all the time.  Maybe I should explain what I mean by cravings.  Not so much a desire to acquire new books (though I have those sorts of cravings all the time), but a desire to read a particular type of story.  It seems there are search engines out there where you can pop in a title and they'll tell you what you should read next . . . a readalike?

This is what I have in mind.  A story of suspense.  Female protagonist.  Setting would be prewar Europe.  The heroine finds herself mixed up in something of that's dangerous and a little beyond her experience, but she's not one to back down from a challenge.  Maybe something a little political, definitely along the lines of a spy story.  Think 1930s.  Glamour.  A story that you could imagine translating onto the silver screen and of course filmed in B&W.

Now, if I hadn't already read Ethel Lina White's The Lady Vanishes, that would be just the ticket.  Or even The Madonna of the Sleeping Cars (though Lady Diana Wynham's secretary Gerard has all the "fun") would do quite nicely.  But something new to me is preferable.  Something written in the 30s would be a first choice, but maybe there is a more contemporary novel written about the era that would satisfy my desire.  Why does nothing come to mind?

I know there are loads of spy novels out there and I've even got a list or two, but the books tend to be heavy with male protagonists.  I seem to return to this genre quite often, don't I?  Maybe I should go back to Helen MacInnes or "settle" for a John Buchan?

Here's my other scenario.  Yes, I've got two.   Last year I read a book called Losing Nicola by Susan Moody.  It was a good novel, not perfect, but I liked the premise.  A coming of age story, a seaside setting of postwar England, another story of suspense and murder (though not espionage this time around).  I hate to think I like reading the same story over and over, but I guess I sort of do--at least occasionally.  When you have a good experience you want to repeat it, right?   Maybe not one book after another of the same sort, but enough time has passed that the stories come back to mind and I've got a bookish whim to read something along those same lines.

Now it's not as though I don't have plenty of satisfying reads on the go right now or anything.  I do.  I'm very much enjoying a number of books at the moment.  And I have four books that I am trying very hard to finish before I go on vacation (which is two weeks from today--quickly approaching--by the way), but when I have these whims, there is nothing for it but to give in to them. 

Yes, this is what I do at the gym when I am using weights and can't have a book in hand.  I start thinking about other books.  Gym time comes after work, and it is my "down time", time to think about what I want to do in my leisure moments.  It's a given that these moments turn to books, right?  I know I should break myself of the habit of thinking about other books when I am in the middle of something good (it almost feels a little bit disloyal).  I should learn to focus more.  Sigh.  

But I'm still happy to take any recommendations you have to offer! 

By the way, I am very nearly already in vacation mode.  I still have a couple of books that I'd like to write about, but I (as you see) had other distractions tonight.  Maybe tomorrow I'll tell you about a book I recently finished (and liked very much) or maybe I'll save them for the weekend when I have more time to spend writing the posts.  Posting in general may be a little sporadic (and probably like tonight a little uninspired), but it seems my mind is in about twenty places at once right now (and not enough time to devote to any one thing like I'd like to).  Assure me you know how that goes!

Mythology: Theseus

Is this not the most amazing photograph?  Many thanks to Catharina who sent this to me after we chatted about mazes.  A few weeks back I read the story of Daedalus and his Labyrinth.  As that same labyrinth comes up in today's story about Theseus it seemed appropriate to share this postcard here.  This is Chartres Cathedral in France where there is a labyrinth that fills the nave.  It dates from the early 13th century and is beautifully preserved.  By the way, did you know that mazes and labyrinths aren't the same thing?  They are used almost interchangeably, but labyrinths have only one path (usually quite circuitous) whereas in a maze there is a choice of paths. 

The labyrinth in Chartres Cathedral has quite a different use/meaning than that found in Crete, but in a way the idea is the same--depicting arduous paths or journeys.  I think I'm only going to share the part of Theseus's story that has to do with the Minoan Labyrinth, though I read about a number of adventures he had.  Theseus is one of the best known and most loved of heroes.  He was the son of the Athenian King Aegeus, who would later give his name to the Aegean Sea.  Theseus was left with his mother to be raised in the country.  When he was old enough and strong enough to roll away a large stone that covered a sword his father buried for him, he would be allowed to come to Athens and where the King would claim him as his son.

It wasn't long before Theseus grew into a strong young man and retrieving the sword was not difficult for him.  He was so anxious to make his mark and show his abilities he took the most dangerous route he could think of in order to become a hero.  And he was a hero in the best sense--loved and respected because the feats he performed were to the benefit of others.  Wanting to endear himself to the Athenian people he volunteered to go to Crete where every nine years a group of young men and women were given as a tribute to King Minos.  They were sent to the Labyrinth and certain death as that was where the Minotaur, a creature half man and half bull, was found.

Of course Theseus volunteered to go with the idea of slaying the minotaur.  When he and the other youths were paraded before the people, King Minos's daughter fell for him at first sight.  She went to Daedalus, the architect of the labyrinth, to find a way for Theseus to escape as long as he would promise to take her with him back to Athens.  Daedalus told Ariadne to have Theseus tie a ball of thread to the door and unwind it behind him in order to be able to find his way back out again.  An easy enough solution and after killing the Minotaur Theseus fled with Ariadne back to Athens, though she sadly did not make it.  Theseus, however, lived to have many more adventures including traveling on the Argo in search of the Golden Fleece.

Next week: Hercules (who is Theseus's cousin by the way), and perhaps Atalanta (as that's a really short tale).  After that it's onwards to the Trojan War.

On a related topic--thanks to Caroline for sharing information about a free online course on Greek and Roman Mythology.  It's put on by the University of Pennsylvania and they offer a variety of really interesting sounding online classes.  I'm quite tempted to do it, though it does sound like it might be a little intense.  It lasts ten weeks beginning September 24.  The course workload would be about 8-10 hours a week.  The texts covered in the class include: Homer's Odyssey, Hesiod's Theogony, Homeric Hymns to Apollo and Demeter, Aeschylus's Oresteia, Sophocles's Oedipus the King, Euripides's Bacchae Vergil's Aeneid and Ovid's Metamorphoses.  It would be perfect timing as I might be able to finish Hamilton's Mythology before and then try and read along as I can and listen in on the lectures.  I love the idea of these online courses, for self-learners they are  a wonderful opportunity to have a little online guidance.

Ragnarok: The End of the Gods, A.S. Byatt

I've really been enjoying my weekly forays into Greek Mythology.  Edith Hamilton presents the myths in a very readable and accessible manner (read that as straightforward and "easy").  It helps that many of the stories and most of the gods have been readily identifiable to me.  So I was looking forward to reading A.S. Byatt's retelling of the Norse myth, Ragnarok, as a sort of companion read.  Now on a good day I fully expect A.S. Byatt's writing to be complex and challenging.  On a bad day (that being a bad reading day for me) it becomes a little too opaque and any drift of the mind just a little bit away from the text means the thread is easily lost and my reading fragmented.  It doesn't help that I have no background knowledge or any experience with Norse Mythology.  Perhaps with a more careful reading of Ragnarok, that wouldn't matter, but I'm afraid I've not done Ragnarok justice, which is a pity since I was really looking forward to it.

So consider this post as my (very shaky) introduction to Norse mythology and an attempt to try and sort out just what it is I read.  It helps that I read this along with a group of other readers over at the Slaves of Golconda and now have the benefit of reading their impressions and interpretations of the book.  I think I was tripped up by the lushness of Byatt's prose.  A prose style the reader needs to be fully engaged with at all times.  The world she describes is both fantastical and violent.  To me it felt like a world of darkness and shadows, filled with natural wonders and creatures that seemed to verge on the extreme or even outrageous.

Ragnarok is one of a series of books in the Canongate Myths, which are retellings of the stories that "reflect and shape our lives — they explore our desires, our fears, our longings, and provide narratives that remind us what it means to be human."  In this case Byatt chose to work with the Norse myth Ragnarok.  I had assumed that her retelling, which I knew was set in WWII England, would be a retelling of the story in a sort of "contemporary" environment.  Rather she used the framework of a child reading the myth as a way to literally retell the story itself, so she moves back and forth between this fantastical world and wartime England.  I'm sure the unnamed narrator, "the thin child" must be Byatt herself who read Asgard and the Gods when she was young.  She notes in her excellent essay at the end of the book (which I will be photocopying to have on hand as reference) that it was the first place she discovered the difference between myths and fairy tales (a distinction I'm still not sure I completely understand).

I like Byatt's juxtaposition of Asgard (and forgive me if I am getting names and places mixed up as I don't have quite the handle on everything as I should) with the thin child's world.  The thin child has been evacuated from London to the countryside with her mother.  Her father has been sent out to Africa to fight in the war, and she does not expect to ever see him again.  It's a paradox, she says, that it was probably thanks to the war and being sent to the country that she actually survived since the air was cleaner and the food more nourishing.  For her mother, too, the countryside is a lifesaver as she gets to teach bright boys even as a married woman who would not otherwise have such an opportunity.

The thin child spends her time reading John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress and a book of Norse myths that belonged to her mother.

"She felt in her bones the crippling burden born by the Man mired in the slough of Despond, she followed his travels through wilderness and the Valley of the Shadow, his encounters with Giant Despair and the fiend Apollyon.  Bunyan's tale had a clear message and meaning.  Not so, Asgard and the Gods.  The book was an account of a mystery, of how the world came together, was filled with magical and powerful beings, and then came to an end.  A real End.  The end."

The thin child understands this only too well--the end.  It's war and to her it feels like the end of the world, too.

Ragnarok is the Norse myth of the end of the world, or the twilight (which I sort of like the sound of better) of the gods.  This is their calamitous ending that results in only human survivors.  I'm not sure yet if there is an equivalent in Greek mythology--I've not gotten that far.  Byatt vividly brings forth this amazing world from the barest beginnings, the tree called Yggdrasil, and hence springs up the rest of the world around it and populates it with creatures and then gods.  But much like the Greek myths, it's not all paradise, and the folly of one or a few brings death and destruction to the rest.  I'm not going to try and summarize the myth, since others have done it so much better than I can--please refer to their posts here. 

For a very short book there is a lot to sort through and some interesting parallels between our world and that of the gods, and Byatt isn't just giving the reader an entertainment with her story.  There is more to poke through and prod.  If myths are indeed ways for us to explore our desires, our fears, our longings and remind us what it is to be human, there's meaning to be mined from this work.  Now I'm off to the dicussion forum to see if I can find a little help in figuring it all out.

If you enjoy reading mythology and don't mind a challenge, this is one to search out.  I hope to read more in the Canongate series (and maybe tackle this one again sometime).

Books: What I've Been Listening To

I'm a very picky audio book listener.  I'm sure I've mentioned this before--not only do I need to be in the right mood for the story, but I'm very particular about the voice of the person who is reading the book.  I belong to Audible (I got sucked in by one of those get 'one free audio book' deals and never bothered to stop my subscription), so I get one credit a month.  As I am an even slower audio book listener than a regular book reader, I've been racking up the credits.  And If you watch for their special deals, you can often get two or sometimes three audio books for the price of one credit (granted the titles are from a specific list).  I've learned that it's best to listen to the sample Audible provides of the audio book to make sure that I'm going to get on well with the reader.  I  might stick out a book I'm reading but am not feeling overly enthusiastic about, but a reader that grates on me will get the heave ho no matter how good the story might be.

I've had some really good audio book experiences, however.  A few favorites include Coraline by Neil Gaiman, which Gaiman himself narrated.  He's a superb reader--all the right inflections at all the right places creating a wonderfully dramatic story.  I listened to a dramatization of Ray Bradbury's This Way Wicked Comes, which was also a great listening experience.  I also listened to Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451, and while it didn't have all the additional bells and whistles, the reader still managed to easily drawn me in.  Katharine MacMahon's The Alchemist's Daughter was another almost perfect listening experience.  I liked the story so much I went out and bought all the books I could find by her and she is now one of my reliably good authors I keep an eye out for.  

With audio books my choices are narrowed a bit--for authors who are favorites or for books I am really excited about reading, only the actual book will suffice.  I don't mind listening to a book I have already enjoyed reading or choosing an author/book I'm not entirely sure about and I wouldn't likely pick up and read otherwise in paper format.  So it's been a little hit or miss this year with audio books.  I set aside Vincent Bugliosi's Helter Skelter, not because the reader was bad (on the contrary the reader is perfect for the material), but because the book is on the disturbing side.  I might yet go back to it and finish. 

I finished Christopher Priest's The Prestige not too long ago. I can't decide whether the story was really very clever or maybe a little too annoying.  It had a good reader, but in this case the story of two feuding magicians began to press on my nerves well before story's end.  More than once it crossed my mind that these were grown men who couldn't get beyond trying to alternately figure out each other's tricks and trying to ruin them.  Amusing at first but it went on and on.  I liked the diary format and the play on identity (with doppelgangers and divided selves and all that), since the story pivots on the necessity of the magicians needing to be able to transport themselves between two distances.  Maybe I would have gotten on better with it had I read the book?   It was by no means a bad 'listen', only felt a little flawed in some aspects. 

Now I'm listening to A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness.  I contemplated reading this when it came out last year, but in the end decided I just wasn't in the mood for a vampire story.  Aside from Dracula (which I also listened to earlier this year--having read the book several years back), I'm just not drawn to books with vampires as characters.  A Discovery of Witches was a complete impulse by for me when I saw the good reviews while I was browsing one day.  I thought it might be fun and absorbing to try, and as it turns out, I'm enjoying the story so much that I even want to listen to it when I am not out walking (which is pretty much the only time I listen to audio books).  It's a quirky story, and a little surprising as Harkness fills Oxford with witches, vampires and demons all after an antiquated manuscript in the Bodleian Library.  Strangely, though, it works (for me anyway) and helps pass my (very warm) morning and evening walks to and from the bus stop.  I didn't realize that this is only the first of three books.  The second, Shadow of Night, has just been published, so I might have to buy the audio version of it as well to have handy for later.  Anyway, I might have to write more about A Discovery of Witches later.

I have Antoine de Saint-Exupery's The Little Prince all lined up as well.  I'm saving it to listen to in one go as it's a short audio book and would be perfect to listen to while stitching. 

I know not everyone likes audio books.  If you do like to them, have you listened to any good ones lately?