Reading Roundup, November 2024: One Classic and One Contemporary British Novel
Persuasion by Jane Austen (Bookshop|Library)
After struggling with my first Austen encounter (Emma, a year or two ago), I found myself really enjoying this one. I find the general consensus that this is a "mature" an interesting proposition. Certainly the themes of loss, second-chances, the maturation of Anne to take more of her own counsel and less of others strike me as such. But the love story at the center still feels to me quite adolescent. Certainly it's a portrayal of a pattern that does occur in nature, but the last time I experienced any such scenario was perhaps in high school. That may be my experiences as a 21st century person whose own marriage plot was resolved via the internet - there simply is no room for will they/won't they, do they/don't they, one-sided affairs in such an environment. And maybe that's part of the attraction to Austen for many. For as good as she is about moral philosophy and class, most people come to these books for the love stories
The Buried Giant by Kazuo Ishiguro (Bookshop|Library)
It's understandable why this is maybe Ishiguro's least heralded work, but for me it was still an engaging exploration of memory, both personal and societal. The setup is fairly straightforward - the book is set in a mythical dark ages Britain, where a mysterious fog has invaded the land and made everyone's memory very unreliable, to say the least. Against that backdrop, an elderly British couple set out to a neighboring village to find their son, who they haven't seen in a great while, or so it seems. Within this context, the reader learns over time that the fog has taken not only fond memories from this couple, but also memories of something darker. The tension portrayed by Ishiguro in their desire to remember all no matter what, and the reservations about just what the bad memories may be really underscores the amount of clemency granted, and maybe necessary, in any relationship. The ambiguous ending for this couple only heightens the melancholy inherent in the portrayal. The flip side of the personal here is characterized by several characters, all of whom have fought against each other - on one side the Britons, the other the Saxons. Atrocities the Britons have historically committed against the Saxons here are largely what has been forgotten, though all of this plays out in ways that have the reader asking themselves just how much needs to be forgotten or forgiven in order to have a functioning society, something that feels more and more pressingly relevant by the day.
Added to my TBR
Darwin's First Theory: Exploring Darwin's Quest for a Theory of Earth by Rob Wesson (Bookshop|Library)
Free Love: The Story of a Great American Scandal by Robert Shaplen (Bookshop|Library)
I have really enjoyed the McNally Editions entries I have read so far, and this sounds like a "fun" one.
Night Haunts: A Journey Through the London Night by Sukhdev Sandhu (Bookshop|Library)
A part of my loose London reading project I'm undertaking before traveling there in the spring. This one sounds kind of like the nocturnal counterpart to Craig Taylor's Londoners.
The Great When by Alan Moore (Bookshop|Library)
Another London entry. I've only read Moore's comics, this might be a fun entrance to his novels.
White City by Dominic Nolan (Bookshop UK|Library)
Not sure where I got wind of this one, as it is definitely NOT available in the US yet. But here's another historical novel set in London that I'd like to get to.
Collected Poems by Michael Longley (Bookshop|Library)
My wife and I watched Say Nothing on Hulu, based on the book of the same name by Patrick Radden Keefe. When I think of the Troubles, one thing I remember is Northern Irish poet Michael Longley and the affecting interview he gave on On Being a number of years ago about the Troubles, poetry, and the natural world.
The Impending Crisis: America Before the Civil War, 1848-1861 by David Morris Potter (Bookshop|Library)
What In Me Is Dark: The Revolutionary Afterlife of Paradise Lost by Orlando Reade (Bookshop|Library)
I've been meaning to read Paradise Lost for at least 10 years now, but one thing I've found helps me get focused on texts like this is reading some sort of companion text. This one just came out, and sounds like just the ticket. You can read an excerpt at Jacobin.