Excellent Women, by Barbara Pym

This is published in the Penguin Classics series, and once you have read it you will understand why. It's a gem of a book, written in the 1950's, about the 'Excellent Women' who are there for others to lean on, always patiently offering a helping hand or a cup of tea, but neither considering, nor expecting to be considered for, marriage.

The heroine, Mildred Lathbury, the daughter of a deceased Church minister, is an unmarried thirty-something, a condition which in those days  meant that she was destined for spinsterhood. Miss Lathbury's life seems empty and so, when not working in a society dedicated to the support of impoverished gentlewomen, she seeks to fill her days by volunteering in the local church and generally supporting the various activities of the vicar, Julian Malory.

In a style evocative of Jane Austen, the author brilliantly describes the changes wrought in Mildred's life by the arrival of new tenants in the flat (apartment) beneath hers, Rockingham Napier and his wife, the circles into which she introduced, not to mention the blundering romantic misadventures of the vicar, Julian, and their effect on his spinster sister, Winfred, another one of the Excellent Women. Pym expertly draws you in to what might seem a trivially mundane world, and illuminating the intrigues that suffuse even the most prosaic of communities.

Excellent Women is character-driven, and relatively short on plot, but those characters are an absolute delight to discover. It is not a superficial novel, though, with Pym masterfully skewering our preconceptions and revealing universal truths about men and women and service. In the end we discover that Miss Lathbury's life is not, in fact, empty. How she fills her days are yours to discover in this highly recommended masterpiece. Five stars !

The Shadow of the Wind

I picked up this novel, by Carlos Ruiz Zafón, with great anticipation. It tells the story of Daniel Sempere, a young boy who can no longer remember the face of his dead mother, and who lives with his father, the proprietor of an antiquarian book store in Barcelona. One day the two visit the cemetery of forgotten books, where Daniel discovers a world of orphaned books. His ultimate choice, The Shadow of the Wind, by Julián Carax, changes his life forever.

Daniel embarks on a quest to discover who Carax was, and the story of his tragic life. Along the way he unravels a story of corruption, murder, passion, obsession, and mysterious identity, in the years preceding and immediately following the Spanish Civil War and World War II. This setting provides a rich backdrop which Zafón uses very effectively, creating a malevolent atmosphere that seethes with intrigue, brutality and betrayal. As Daniel peels back the layers of mystery, he finds his own life mirroring that of Julián's, and he finds himself trapped in a web of intrigue and revenge.


Zafón is clearly a very talented writer, who rightly has been compared to Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Luis Borges, but alas in this case he comes up short. The writing displays flashes of brilliance, but the plot exposition is meandering and overly long, with a significant portion of the story being clumsily depicted in the form of narrative letters. His development of the characters is, in the main, masterfully done, with many being memorable and expertly drawn, although others are less well treated. Daniel's adopted uncle, Fermin, for example, is a fascinating individual, while Daniel's father is rather one-dimensional. 


Another disappointment for me was the use of language. At times, particularly in the first third or so of the book, I found the idioms strangely constructed in places - whether this true of the original Spanish, or Lucia Graves' translation, I can't say. It was clumsy enough to be distracting, and at times I felt as if the English was written by a non-native speaker.


On the whole, the story is fascinating and pleasurable. I can recommend "The Shadow of the Wind" as a good read, one that I enjoyed myself, but it is also one that is vaguely disappointing, one that made me feel as if the novel that this could have been is merely the shadow of the wind.

Brothers of the Sea

Continuing my theme of looking at books previously issued as part of the Reader's Digest condensed book series, in part because of my theory that it's one way to discover good books from the (relatively recent) past that are now overlooked, I picked up a copy of D.R. Sherman's Brothers of the Sea, a novel that would now be called a 'young adult' book but one that will reward the adult reader as well.

Denis Ronald Sherman, who was born in Rhodesia in 1934, lived in Bechuanaland, modern-day Botswana, and wrote several books that deal with nature, and conservation, with Old Mali and the Sea being one of his most famous works.


Brothers of the Sea is the beautifully written story of 15 year-old Paul Mistral, abandoned at birth, who lives with Roger, his fisherman stepfather, in a thatched hut in the luxuriant Seychelles. Their life is simple and their needs are few, as the sea provides amply for them. When Roger breaks his leg, however, Paul must take to the sea to spear fish for their meals and to earn money to pay their essentials. While Paul is out fishing one day a dolphin saves his life by driving off a shark, and the two soon become friends. Paul learns how to take rides on the back of the marsouin, and they swim together every day.

Paul is unable to earn enough to pay their rent, however, and so they are threatened with eviction. Only a large catch can generate enough to save their home, and so Roger urges Paul to kill his friend. "It is there to be caught, by son." The boy is torn between his love for his friend and for his father, and the tragic outcome is hard to forget.

The man waited, watching the dolphin close. He held the harpoon with a love that was almost obsessive. My sweet God, he thought, it is almost like putting the knife of your body into a woman who has never been a woman before. He felt a great hurting inside him, for himself and for this thing which he had to do, and for the big fish who was like a woman. He lifted the harpoon a little higher and then started it plunging down. I love you, fish, he thought joyously.

Sherman's prose is simple, and the story is a moving and evocative paean to the sea, to friendship, and to love. Highly recommended.

Tree Frog - a 1960's spy story about unmanned aerial vehicles

I came was recently browsing through a list of books that the Readers Digest company had included in their condensed books series, and came across this one that looked interesting. Tree Frog was published in 1966, and is an easy to read thriller in the laconic style of Alastair MacLean or Desmond Bagley. The protagonist is similar in many of these books, being a slightly jaded hero who is thrown into a situation where his incomplete knowledge leaves him at the mercy of superiors who are orchestrating a web of deceit, espionage and treachery. The hero is no superman, and yet generally prevails in the end by cleverly figuring out what is really happening, and who the good and bad guys are. This genre of thriller can be imagined as the result of crossing the works of Agatha Christie's whodunnits with John Buchan thrillers, while sprinkling in a liberal dash of John D. MacDonald's world-weary cynicism
Tree Frog was written by Martin Woodhouse, and is one of a series featuring the character Giles Yeoman, a research scientist working for the British Government. In this novel, Yeoman is called upon to use his knowledge of hydraulic control systems to examine a crashed unmanned aerial vehicle, and gets drawn into a web of conspiracy, duplicity and misinformation. It's of mild current interest these days given the increasing use of Predators in the War on Terror. 6/10. Tree Frog (New Windmills)

True Spirit - 16-year-old Jessica Watson sails around the world on her own

In this book Jessica Watson, at 16 years old the youngest person ever to circumnavigate the globe non-stop, single-handedly, and unassisted, describes the journey that started years before she set sail from Sydney on her voyage around the world. She describes, in clear and entertaining prose, her childhood growing up near and on the water, how she gradually came to set her heart on sailing around the world, and the planning and development that led up to her voyage and, ultimately, to the realization of that dream.

Jessica is a remarkable girl, not merely because of her sailing accomplishments but, perhaps more importantly, because she reminds us all that in this world of political correctness gone amok, with over-protective parents, observers and commentators, that it is human nature to seek out challenges and to set ourselves goals to achieve. That is what "True Spirit" is all about. In the book, Jessica dismisses, matter-of-factly, the naysayers and those people who thought that she was too young, too inexperienced, or simply too much a girl, and she describes how she pursued her vision despite their opposition. Indeed, it is ironic, in such a world of political correctness, that the sailing establishment no longer officially recognizes the "youngest" circumnavigator. Sailing organizations, however, don't achieve greatness, or set records, or triumph in the face of adversity. Those of us who read her book, on the other hand, recognize Jessica's accomplishment. Officially recognized, or not, her record is a matter of fact. Even if she had not set a record, however, her journey would be a marvelous feat of endurance and seamanship. And official records don't really mean much, at the end of the day.

Some of the material in Jessica's book may be familiar to those who followed her voyage on a daily basis. She builds on her blog, but then she takes us behind the scenes, describing the teamwork involved in the effort. She discusses how she does not really consider herself a hero, in the traditional sense of the word, but rather as simply a girl who chose to follow her dream, single-mindedly and with conviction. Jessica is not afraid to reveal her human side, and discusses her human emotions, describing how they varied throughout the voyage. As you read her book you will see, shining through the pages, her determination, self-assurance, doubt, happiness, depression, anger, expectation, frustration, relief and, ultimately, joy.

For anyone interested in sailing, or in travel, or simply in the story of a girl following her dream, this book is highly recommended. As Jessica notes in her last page, you don't need a star to make a wish come true. You simply need to follow your dream.

Welcome

As I reported on my home blog recently, we canceled our cable TV subscription a few weeks ago. For years the only thing I watched was Turner Classic Movies; pretty much everything else was, in my opinion, complete garbage. In addition, the kids were starting to just sit at the TV and watch shows indiscriminately, instead of doing something more constructive such as reading or playing games.

The economics of the entertainment industry are interesting. I find it offensive that cable TV companies try to charge us four times for the same pipe – for basic cable, digital cable, internet service and phone service. Not to mention Pay-Per-View movies and movie channels. Many of us have gradually become accustomed to paying for “services” that we didn’t have twenty years ago – mobile phone service, mobile data, cable, movie channels, etc. If you add up what you’re paying for these services you might be shocked.

I believe it’s ludicrous to pay for movie channels on cable when you can watch a vast array of old movies online and current releases on DVD for $15 a month on Netflix, or pay $1 to rent a DVD from RedBox. Why on earth do the cable TV companies think that consumers will willingly pay $5 for an inferior viewing of a movie on Pay-Per-View ? Even Apple is getting in on the game with their online movie rentals that are exorbitantly priced. Not content with gouging the consumer in that regard, their latest entrepreneurial venture is the peddling of online TV program rentals. Talk about the scraping the bottom of the barrel… Who in their right minds would want to pay to rent an episode of a typical American television program ? Perhaps there is an audience for it, but I am glad not be be among that great unwashed.

All of us enjoy having our family movie nights, where we watch movies on our big screen (120 inches), munching on popcorn, pie and ice-cream, and (for the grown-ups) sharing a bottle of wine, but for the last few years these films have been either on DVDs or, more recently, movies viewed over the internet. We haven’t watched a Pay-Per-View or Free-to-Air movie in years. The development of services such as Netflix’s on-demand streaming, Hulu, and Roku means that there are now viable alternatives to cable, through which the kids can continue to watch their favourite shows, but now as the result of a conscious decision rather than being interspersed among an avalanche of junk such as cheap cartoons and reality shows.

Jenn and I, meanwhile, plan to spend a lot more time reading and writing. I have a large library of unread books by now; it’s about time I started working through it. I plan on reading at least a book a week - and I hope to be able to read many more than that, depending on the pressures of work. I have decided to keep track of the books that I read, and to comment on them here. It will be an interesting journey. Stay tuned !