Reading Roundup, August/September 2024: Jack and Stephen at Home, Musings on Art, and a Field Guide
The Commodore by Patrick O'Brian (Bookshop|Library)
Finally home after the big, multi-volume circumnavigation of the globe, Jack and Stephen arrive home and of course not all is well. The main storyline for Jack surrounds the jealousy in his marriage, both earned and unearned. Jack for one is jealous of a local clergyman who has developed a close relationship with Sophie. Sophie's jealousy is inflamed by an unfortunate dinner party in which the already suspect Clarissa Oakes shows up in a dress cut from the same bolt of cloth delivered to Sophie as a gift from abroad. The interesting thing to me is that while we know Jack is innocent in the particulars in this case but certainly not in general, we never really know how things stand on the other side of the equation. But that's all rather beside the point as O'Brian explores the toll jealousy takes on each and by extension those around them.
Stephen undergoes his own marital trials in this one as he arrives home to find Diana fled, spooked by the peculiar development of their daughter Brigid. And as is so often the case, the problems these men encounter are resolved once they are back out to sea, nominally to police the slave trade off of the coast of West Africa, but ultimately to foil a squadron of French ships bound for the coast of Ireland.
Twice Lost by Phyllis Paul (Bookshop|Library)
This was my first McNally Editions acquisition. They are handsome little paperbacks that I've flipped through many times at bookstores, but the blurbs/introduction on this one spurred me to finally take the plunge. The writing style I found peculiar, certainly dated - a lot of it felt in direct violation of the contemporary fashion to "show and not tell" in fiction. But the plot was compelling enough that I followed it all the way to the end. A fairly nasty little thriller, it really did drive home its indictments of everyone involved in the story of the disappearance of a little girl, and her mysterious reappearance in the village years later.
Funny Weather: Art in an Emergency by Olivia Laing (Bookshop|Library)
The second collection of Laing's I dove into this year, this one is more a collection of essays and pieces first published elsewhere than anything with a big through-line. It's main preoccupation is with art and artists, and I really did enjoy learning about many figures I was unfamiliar with. Derek Jarman in particular stands out as someone I'd like to learn more about, and that may be due to Laing's own enthusiasm shining through. She also references him and his garden in The Garden Against Time.
The Yellow Admiral by Patrick O'Brian (Bookshop|Library)
This entry in the Aubrey-Maturin series is close cousins to the second, Post Captain, in that so much of it is set ashore back home in England - moreso even than The Commodore - and focuses a lot on the domestic trials of our protagonists. One item in this one that struck me was Jack's politics. Much of his time ashore is spent fighting a typical Georgian-era enclosure scheme in his parish - one that he could even stand to benefit from given his position. And going even farther, he is allied in this fight with the people of the parish against an admiral with whom he is currently serving under. Much like revolutionary Irishman Stephen's stance that allows him to serve in the British Royal Navy, it's another of the contradictions - Jack is an instinctual Tory - that makes these characters so convincing.
A Month in the Country by J.L. Carr (Bookshop|Library)
A novella I picked up on something of a whim, and I'm glad I did. The book follows a World War I veteran Tom Birkin as he restores a medieval mural in a northern English village church. Birkin arrives traumatized by his experiences in the war, which sets up the main themes of the novel which are the transformative and healing powers of art, and the inevitable passage of time. Along the way we are introduced to another veteran who is camping in town to investigate some of the church's history, as well as a host of villagers with their own preoccupations. Hugely enjoyable, poignant, and well-worth the small investment of time it takes to complete.
The Stokes Field Guide to Finches of the United States and Canada (Bookshop|Library)
I have a decently large collection of field guides (even for places/organisms I haven't and may never encounter in this life), but so far nobody had taken the time to publish a finch-specific one. This seems like a fairly huge oversight in retrospect, given the dominant status of finches as feeder birds, and thus among the more familiar birds to non-birders. All of the in-depth species accounts have already enhanced my own feeder-watching and birding, and the guide is so thorough it also includes Hawaiian honeycreepers (yes, they are finches), and even uncommon vagrants one might run into in North America, like the Brambling that made its way to Colorado Springs last winter for a time. With all that information, and given the status of finches, this is a book I'd consider giving as a gift to anyone with even a casual interest in birds around their home.