Not Just Another Grouchy Grammarian

Review: Stella Maris, by Cormac McCarthy

I believe that, though it’s the shorter of the two books in this duology, Cormac McCarthy’s Stella Maris is a much richer book than The Passenger.

In Stella Maris, we are observers, so to speak, at seven sessions between Alicia Western and her therapist at the Stella Maris mental health facility. Together, they explore the nature of madness, of language, of communication, and of symbols.

For me, one of the most resonating moments is when Alicia admits that she always wanted to fit in, but could not countenance the price of admission. I was also fascinated by their examinations of the intersectionality of God, physics, faith, and reason, and our search to understand the complex relationship between them.

This is a very fascinating book, and even more worth reading than The Passenger. However, for a full understanding it’s best to read both books, and time and effort well-spent to do so.

Review: The Passenger, by Cormac McCarthy

I generally find Conrad McCarthy’s books difficult to read, and The Passenger was no exception. However, I did find this book to be rewarding, because — for once — I felt I had a handle on what McCarthy was going for.

To me, the book is about searching, control, and the price and futility of trying to become “enlightened.” It’s also about how our paths get thrown off as life takes us in directions we never dreamed of following, and about the tunnel vision most of us have when it comes to pursuing things, as well as how we shape events in our lives to agree with our “stories.” It’s also about coming to terms with who we are.

This is, of course, a lot of heavy lifting for one book. The Passenger carries it off brilliantly through the eyes of Bobby Western and the conversations he has with others, along with the paths his life takes and his obsession with his deceased sister, Alicia. It also looks at Alicia’s very human desire to not exist at all since she finds the constraints of living in society to be soul-crushing. She retreats into a world where the voices in her head become much more real to her than almost any human voices (with her brother being one of a very few exceptions to this).

I note that I had to take a number of breaks while listening to the book, although the reading was excellent, because there was so much to digest and think about, and partly because there are disturbing elements to it (as with the other books of his that I’ve read).

McCarthy has written another book to go with this, Stella Maris. I will definitely be reading it, to see how he wraps this series up — although at first read of The Passenger I am wondering if these were meant to be the first two books of an Aeschylus-styled trilogy, where two competing things are dealt with in the first two works, and synthesized into a coherent whole in the third.

Still, if you are up for a challenge, this is a worthy one.

Review: Revolting Librarians, by Celeste West

I found out about Celeste West’s Revolting Librarians from my friend Lisa, who called me to gleefully inform me that this book she had gotten from my wife had sold for $70. After my asking what the hell she was talking about, she told me that it was an old book, from 1972, and apparently quite rare. Following a brief argument, I did what I always do when I can’t find a book at any of the three NYC libraries — I turned to World Cat on the web, which revealed that The Internet Archive had a copy that was readable online.

Now I love The Internet Archive, don’t get me wrong. However, it can be a pain to use. For one thing, while some books can be borrowed for 15 days, most are only available as one-hour loans, which means you have to keep borrowing a book in order to finish it. It also is not user-friendly in that while you are trying to make a page large enough to be readable, it will randomly resize the page and it takes a lot of time to get back to where you were.

That said, since it was the only way I was gonna get to explore this book (actually more of an APA [Amateur Press Association] collation), I dove in, and I’m glad I did!

First, the book is delightful. It’s a wonderful look at the state of libraries from 1972 when the major changes we are now accustomed to were first being thought of and fought for by librarians, usually with stiff opposition from administrators and those in real power.

Second, it was just fun to read. It’s a nice mix of stories, poems, art, and some audio (which I did not listen to, but maybe next time…) and feels like the librarian equivalent to the free-form radio I came of age listening to.

Third, there is the nostalgia factor. I was in college (my first attempt) in 1972, and the book, with its many bits about college libraries, brought back a lot of memories — notably about why I preferred the Queens Borough Public Library’s Central Branch to my college library (better hours, better organization, more audio choices, more items for pleasure reading, a greater likelihood of finding the material I wanted, etc.). At the time, of course, I had no idea how frustrating this must have been to the college librarians since I had no idea of the battles they were fighting to be taken as relevant to the students.

At any rate, if you can get your hands on a copy, or are willing to deal with the idiosyncrasies of The Internet Archive, you should definitely try to read Revolting Librarians. (And there is a sequel, Revolting Librarians Redux: Radical Librarians Speak Out, edited by Katia Roberto and Jessamyn West, that I will attempt to read in my copious free time.) It’s time and effort well-spent.

Review: The Jewish World of Alexander Hamilton, by Andrew Porwancher

Okay, Andrew Porwancher’s The Jewish World of Alexander Hamilton took a long time to read. However, that was because there was so much information to digest (not to mention interruptions for health reasons and family issues).

Mr. Porwancher digs deeply into Hamilton’s origins and career and also paints a fascinating picture of how America transitioned from a colony to a democratic republic. Hamilton was, perhaps, the most complex of our Founding Fathers, and the book provides a nice counterbalance to all the furor created by Lin-Manuel Miranda’s outstanding musical and Ron Chernow’s fascinating book.

Among other things, it compares Hamilton’s relationship with Jews to that of the other Founding Fathers, which let me see a lot that I didn’t know before. it also examines several of the legal cases Hamilton took on and the greater meaning and impacts those had on colonial Jews.

What the book does NOT do, is proclaim definitively whether or not Hamilton himself was Jewish by birth. He leaves that for the reader to determine, although he notes that since Hamilton’s mother had converted to Judaism it is a distinct possibility.

Whether you agree or not, however, Porwancher provides a stunning, in-depth look at a complex man living in complex, turbulent times. So, for me, it’s definitely a must-read.

Review: A Sportsman’s Notebook: Stories, by Ivan Turgenev

As always, I enjoyed Turgenev’s work. A Sportsman’s Notebook covers a lot of ground besides the hunting and fishing stories you expect in such a volume. He looks at the life of serfs, the relationships between serfs and owners, Russian society at a time of major changes and upheavals, and relationships between men and women.

Turgenev’s writing is beautiful in its directness and clarity.

Sorry for the shortness of this review, but I am having an episode of Carpal Tunnel Syndrome, so I can’t hold the tablet for long.

Still, if you are exploring Russian literature, Turgenev is a writer you don’t want to miss.

Review: The Phoenix and the Carpet, by E. Nesbit

My friend Lisa told me that the second and third books of this series were better than the first one (E. Nesbit’s Five Children and It), and she was right about the second book, at least. The Phoenix and the Carpet is about the continued adventures of the children.

In this book, the mom buys a rug and an egg falls out of it. The egg contains a phoenix, who gets the kids involved in various adventures. The phoenix, of course, has its own take on the world. One of my favorite scenes occurs in an insurance office, with the insurance salespersons singing about their products as if the songs were hymns to the phoenix, with the phoenix critiquing them.

So, yes, the second book is better than the first, but it’s still a pretty low bar. However, if yu are not happy unless you read a complete series, it won’t do any harm to try this one, too.