Books I Read September 30th, 2019

A short one today, but I spent the last few weeks otherwise actively engaged in adventure and merriment, so give me a goddamn break.

To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf – The cataclysmic tragedy of human existence as revealed in the quotidian interactions of a wealthy intellectual family at their beach house in coastal England, as described by one of the better prose writers of the 20th century. Thunderous and profound.

The Wishing Tree by Christopher Isherwod – A collection of essays dealing with Isherwood's midlife conversion to Vedanta. Most of the stuff in this will be familiar to anyone with a basic knowledge of Hinduism, I can't really say that I took a lot from it.

The Collected Short Stories of Jean Stafford by Jean Stafford – Wide-ranging but unremarkable. I was looking forward to this after having really enjoyed the Mountain Lion, but the stuff in here felt flat, predictable or entirely without a proper sting.

I Served the King of England by Bohumil Hrabel – A licentious, charming cad serves as a valet during the wild days of prewar Mitteleuropa, sells his soul to the Nazis, redeems himself in philosophical old age. Surreal and funny, with the propulsive stream of consciousness that was Hrabel's house style. Lots of fun, worth a read.

Saints and Strangers by Angela Carter – Another collection of short stories by a talented writer that kind of bored the hell out of me. Carter has chops, but the stories were fuzzy and unstructured, at least to my tastes.

The Guide by R.K. Narayan – After a life ruined by greed and obsessive love, an ex-con finds himself ensconced as a self-styled guru in a temple in rural India. A swiftly paced, charming depiction of man's weakness before the demands of fate and the whims of instinct, kin in some interesting ways to Hrabel's two spots above.

A Dream of Africa by Camara Laye – A pessimistic satire of the plight of independent Guinea. I really liked Radiance of the King, but this didn't quite come together. Rushed and somewhat didactic.

The Second Book of Fritz Leiber by Fritz Leiber – I picked this one off a rack at Space Cowboy in Joshua Tree partly because I have kind of a soft spot for Leiber but mostly because the cover art was just so insanely bad (what is going on with the proportions to those arms, man? Fafhrd looks like Mr. Fantastic). It's fine, the short stories are clearly not his best stuff but some of the essays were thoroughly enjoyable.

Jakob Von Gunten by Robert Walser – The dreamy, dishonest son of a minor aristocrat chronicles his education in a servant's school in this nonsensical Bildingsroman. Or, maybe none of that happens, its the kind of book where you can't really be sure how much of the narrative (such as it is) is actually taking place. I gather this was a seminal text for a certain sort of German intellectual circa 1910, but the stream of conscience ramblings which must have been innovative has since become commonplace, and the emotive silliness bored me to tears.

Riddley Walker by Russel Hoban – In a distant post-apocalypse, a savage child from a tribe of hunter gatherers struggles to find redemption for the human race. Absolutely brilliant. Although presented in a peculiar, alien vernacular, with words written phonetically and concepts from the present reimagined in a dreamlike but entirely plausible fashion, it still manages a profound depth of insight. Quite simply one of the best works of speculative fiction ever written—I can't fathom why it isn't more universally regarded, except in so far as its a difficult if compelling read. Anyway, don't sleep on this, its tremendous.