Hey! It's Thursday!

Darn mice!

It's another rainy day in the Comox Valley. We're going to pick up our Ford Focus from one car repair shop and then tomorrow it goes to the Ford dealer to see if it needs more work. Darn mice! 

Little rats! or mice

They seem to have decided that the engine block was a nice warm place to live. Fountain Tires has done the initial work, replacing coolant hoses and now Ford will look at the wiring. This is the first time ever that I've made an insurance claim. We're currently driving a nice little rental, a Hyundai Kona. We might have to look at one as a possible replacement.

I've finished two more books since my last reading update. Or more accurately, I gave up on one and completed one. I'll provide my reviews for both and also the synopses for the next two books I've started. Shockingly, I've no new books on which to provide updates. Don't tell Jo or she'll think there is something wrong with me. 😎 I will continue with my ongoing look at Women Authors whose work I've been enjoying. 

Finished Reading

1. Fanny Hill, Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure by John Cleland (1748). I was reading this as part of my pre-1900 books. I ended up giving up on it as I found myself just skimming pages. 

"Well. OK. I've given up on Fanny Hill, Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure by John Cleland. From what I've read it's one of the earlier examples of erotica. It is well-written, I guess. Originally published in 1748, it tells the story of young Fanny Hill, who writes letters to Madam and describes her descent into a life of Pleasure.

Fanny moves to London, is taken in by one woman who teaches her about sex. She falls in love, her suitor, is sent overseas. She then moves in with another man (sold by her madam). Because she sees him having sex with her maid, she does the same with his valet. He boots her out and she moves in with another madam.... That's where I finally gave up. Not sure how it ends.

It's definitely a book of erotica, but it is also quite relentless. I didn't know that there were so many words to describe female and male anatomy. I'm sure it was shocking at the time. From what I read about Cleland, he was arrested after publication of the book. The language is 'mild' for the topic but also quite graphic. Anyway... It wasn't worth finishing and seeing if and how Fanny resolves her life. Try it and let me know. (No Rating / NR)"

2. Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands by Kate Beaton (2022). I read this as part of my CanCon genre challenge. I first heard of the book when I looked at Barack Obama's books of 2022. 

"Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands by Kate Beaton is an autobiographical story told in graphic novel format of two years spent in the Alberta Oil Sands, at Fort McMurray by novelist Beaton. After graduating from university in Nova Scotia, Beaton decides to go to work in the Oil Sands for a couple of years to pay off her student debts.

The Oil Sands attract workers from all over Canada and the world, especially from the Maritime provinces where work in the mines, fishing and steel industries were drying up. Kate meets folks from all over Nova Scotia and Newfoundland during her time there.

It's not a pretty tale, to be sure. Women working in the Oil Sands are outnumbered 50 - 1 by men. The isolation of some of the camps can change people. Kate's story is sometimes gritty; she was raped twice while there, and very revealing. It's so very well drawn as well. Her artwork is clear and sometimes awesome and grand in scale. 

It's a fascinating story peopled with wonderful people, people trying to earn money, trying to help their families but being away has its effects on people as well. And Kate tells this story clearly and thoughtfully. I'm glad that President Obama mentioned it as one of his books of 2022 and that I saw it very shortly afterwards in my local book store. Well worth checking out. (4.0 stars)"

Currently Reading

1. The Man Who Would Be King & Other Stories by Rudyard Kipling (1885). Continuing with my January Decade Challenge, pre-1900's.

"Winner of the Nobel Prize for literature in 1907, Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936) drew upon his experiences in Anglo-Indian Society for much of his writing.

This anthology of tales by Rudyard Kipling contains some of the most memorable and popular examples of the genre of which he is an undisputed master. The Man Who Would Be King (later adapted as a spectacular film) is a vivid narrative of exotic adventure and disaster.

The other tales include the ironic, horrific, poignant and haunting. Here Kipling displays his descriptive panache and realistic boldness. Shrewd, audacious, abrasive and challenging, he remains absorbingly readable.

Contents of this Wordsworth Classics edition:
* The Education of Otis Yeere
* At the Pit's Mouth
* A Wayside Comedy
* The Hill of Illusion
* A Second-Rate Woman
* Only a Subaltern
* The Phantom 'Rickshaw
* My Own True Ghost Story
* The Strange Ride of Morrowbie Jukes
* The Man Who Would Be King
* Wee Willie Winkie
* Baa Baa, Black Sheep33433
* His Majesty the King
* The Drums of the Fore and Aft"

2. Stories I Might Regret Telling You: A Memoir by Martha Wainwright (2022). I saw this book one day when I was checking out The Laughing Oyster book shop. It kind of intrigued me as Wainwright comes from music royalty, her mother is Kate McGarrigle of Kate & Anna McGarrigle. Her father is Loudon Wainwright and her brother is Rufus Wainwright. Amongst others. Back in my Uni days, I bought Kate and Anna's 2nd album, Dancer with Bruised Knees. This book just seemed like one I might like to try. It's been interesting so far.

"A singer-songwriter's heartfelt memoir about growing up in a bohemian musical family and her experiences with love, loss, motherhood, divorce, the music industry, and more.

Born into music royalty, the daughter of folk legends Kate McGarrigle and Loudon Wainwright III and sister to the highly-acclaimed and genre-defying singer Rufus Wainwright, Martha grew up in a world filled with such incomparable folk legends as Leonard Cohen; Suzy Roche, Anna McGarrigle, Richard and Linda Thompson, Pete Townsend, Donald Fagan and Emmylou Harris. It was within this loud, boisterous, carny, musical milieu that Martha came of age, struggling to find her voice until she exploded on the scene with her 2005 debut critically acclaimed album, Martha Wainwright, containing the blistering hit, "Bloody Mother F*cking Asshole," which the Sunday Times called one of the best songs of that year. Her successful debut album and the ones that followed such as Come Home to Mama, I Know You're Married but I've Got Feelings Too, and Goodnight City came to define Martha's searing songwriting style and established her as a powerful voice to be reckoned with.

In Martha's memoir, Stories I Might Regret Telling You, Martha digs into the deep recesses of herself with the same emotional honesty that has come to define her music. She describes her tumultuous public-facing journey from awkward, earnest, and ultimately rebellious daughter, through her intense competition and ultimate alliance with her brother, Rufus, to the indescribable loss of their mother, Kate, and then, finally, discovering her voice as an artist. With candor and grace, Martha writes of becoming a mother herself and making peace with her past struggles with Kate and her former self, finally understanding and facing the challenge of being a female artist and a mother. Ultimately, Stories I Might Regret Telling You will offer readers a thoughtful and deeply personal look into the extraordinary life of one of the most talented singer-songwriters in music today."

Addendum. As I sit here, the mail carrier just dropped a book off on our doorstep. Of course, she was welcomed by Bonnie and Clyde in their normal fashion.

New Books

1. The City of Mirrors by Justin Cronin (The Passage #3 / 2016).

"In life I was a scientist called Fanning.

Then, in a jungle in Bolivia, I died.

I died, and then I was brought back to life...

Prompted by a voice that lives in her blood, the fearsome warrior known as Alicia of Blades is drawn towards to one of the great cities of The Time Before. The ruined city of New York. Ruined but not empty. For this is the final refuge of Zero, the first and last of The Twelve. The one who must be destroyed if mankind is to have a future.

What she finds is not what she's expecting.

A journey into the past.

To find out how it all began.

And an opponent at once deadlier and more human than she could ever have imagined."

Women Whose Works I've Been Enjoying - Carson McCullers

Carson McCullers

Carson McCullers was an American author / short story writer who was born in Georgia in 1917 and died in New York in 1967. I first discovered her work after watching The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, a great movie starring Alan Arkin. The book turned out to be just as great. Since then I've tried two others of McCullers' books. I'll provide my reviews of those three books to give you a feel for her writing.

1. The Member of the Wedding (1946).

"One of my favorite all-time books is The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter by American writer Carson McCullers. This novel explored the lives and relationships of a group of misfits in the South. I found The Member of The Wedding, written in 1946, was the 3rd of 4 novels she had published. It explores similar themes but it was a darker story in some ways than Lonely Hunter.

The Member of the Wedding follows twelve-year old Frankie who live with her widowed father and their maid Berenice. The story mainly focuses on Frankie and also Berenice and Frankie's young cousin, John Henry. The tale takes place over the period of a couple of days. Frankie's older brother is in the US Army (the setting is towards the end of WWII) and is on leave as her prepares to get married. The wedding will be out of town and we don't really meet the betrothed couple.

It's a hot summer in southern town and Frankie is lost, jealous of the wedding, frustrated with her life and angry and depressed at the same time. She plans to go away with her brother and new wife after the wedding. (Note: Dad is an absent figure in this story, it revolves around the 3 others)

The story follows Frankie as she wanders about her town on the day before the wedding. She meets people, tells about her plans for the wedding and afterwards. There is a disturbing incident that takes place and throughout their is a sometimes darkness and feeling of unease as she wanders. 

It is a fascinating story and the three main characters are well-developed and unique. The story alternates between Frankie's journey around town and their interactions in the kitchen of Frankie's home. These interactions present many interesting themes and show Frankie's feelings and thoughts, but also those of Berenice and to a lesser extent, John Henry.

The story is in three parts and in each we meet a different Frankie; Part 1 - 12 year old Frankie, Part 2 - she becomes F. Jasmine (part of her desire to leave with her brother and future sis-in-law, both F.J.'s) & Part 3 - she is Frances). Each name explains her attitude and personality and the events taking place. There are interesting discussions especially in the kitchen. I especially found the discussions on the Negro experience and feelings of Berenice as poignant and touching. Berenice's wish for a future world were profound - "But the world of the Holy Lord God Berenice Sadie Brown was a different world, and it was round and just and reasonable. First there would be no separate colored peopled in the world, but all human beings would be lighter brown color with blue eyes and black hair. There would be no colored people and no white people to make the colored people feel cheap and sorry all through their lives....." It really struck a chord with me and still resonates today in the US / world.

The story had a different, darker tone than The Heart is a Lonely Hunter and there was an ominous feel throughout. But so well-written and crafted, it was an excellent, touching, emotional story. Based on solely two stories, but she was a great writer who painted fascinating pictures of the lives she portrayed. The Member of the Wedding was also made into a movie in 1952. I may have to see it, but I don't need to cry anymore  (e.g. The Heart is a Lonely Hunter....) (5 stars)"

2. The Heart is a Lonely Hunter (1940).

"When she was only twenty-three, Carson McCullers’s first novel created a literary sensation. She was very special, one of America’s superlative writers who conjures up a vision of existence as terrible as it is real, who takes us on shattering voyages into the depths of the spiritual isolation that underlies the human condition. This novel is the work of a supreme artist, Carson McCullers’s enduring masterpiece. The heroine is the strange young girl, Mick Kelly. The setting is a small Southern town, the cosmos universal and eternal. The characters are the damned, the voiceless, the rejected. Some fight their loneliness with violence and depravity, some with sex or drink, and some— like Mick— with a quiet, intensely personal search for beauty." (5 stars)

3.  The Ballad of the Sad Café (1951).

"I've previously read and enjoyed two of the novels of Carson McCullers; The Heart is a Lonely Hunter (one of my all-time favorite novels) and The Member of the Wedding (which was also quite good.) The Ballad Of The Sad Café is a collection of her short stories, originally published in 1951. It contains 7 stories including the titled one; The Ballad of the Sad Café, Wunderkind, The Jockey, Madame Zilensky and the King of Finland, The Sojourner, A Domestic Dilemma, and A Tree, a Rock, A Cloud.

There is no denying that McCullers creates fascinating scenarios and settings but for the most part, I'm afraid I didn't get the point of the stories. The best one was the first, a powerfully depressing story of 3 individuals in a small town; Miss Amelia, owner of the local store and a powerful woman of the community, the hunchback who shows up (turns out he's a distant relation) and causes such a change in her life, and Marvin Macy, her ex-husband of just a few days, who turns up from prison. The resulting chaos will drastically change Amelia's life. As I said, a powerful, but depressing story.

The remaining stories are much shorter and while they do create fascinating pictures, I found the endings unsatisfying. Each seemed to leave you hanging. It's very possible I'm not perceptive enough to discern her point, that her point escaped me, but they just didn't ultimately satisfy me. 

Wunderkind, for example, is about a young girl struggling with her music lessons. Her hands aren't responding to instruction, her body aches, her teacher keeps encouraging her, but ultimately, she rushes off. Why! The Jockey features a, yes you guessed it, a jockey who confronts a table of 3 men, a trainer, an owner and a bookie. The story refers to a previous incident in which his friend, another jockey, is hurt. There is a confrontation..... OK.. but why! Each story is similar to me. I seem to miss the punchline, the result. 

But don't let that dissuade you. At the very least, you should explore The Ballad of the Sad Café. The remaining stories are short and quick and easy to read. I'd suggest you try them all and see what they mean for you. Carson McCullers is worthy of trying. (3 stars)"

The complete list of Carson McCullers' books can be found at this link.