Linda92007's Reading for 2013 - Part 2

Currently Reading


Out of Place: A Memoir by Edward W. Said


For a Song and a Hundred Songs: A Poet's Journey Through a Chinese Prison by Liao Yiwu

Completed Reads January - July 2013

1. My Cousin Rachel by Daphne du Maurier
2. Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
3. The Lamb by Francois Mauriac (Nobel Laureate)
4. Good Prose: The Art of Nonfiction by Tracy Kidder and Richard Todd
5. One Day the Ice Will Reveal All Its Dead by Clare Dudman
6. The Shape of Water by Andrea Camilleri
7. Brother to Dragons: A Tale in Verse and Voices: A New Version by Robert Penn Warren
8. Dreams in a Time of War by Ngugi wa'Thiong'o
9. Color Me English by Caryl Phillips
10. Here and Now: Letters (2008-2011) by Paul Auster and J.M. Coetzee
11. Transatlantic: A Novel by Colum McCann
12. Looking for the Gulf Motel by Richard Blanco
13. Selected Readings: Forging Identity in Post-Reconstruction America: The Turn of the Century
Charles Chesnutt, “The Wife of His Youth” (1898), “The Goophered Grapevine" (1899)
Paul Laurence Dunbar, “Mr. Cornelius Johnson, Office-Seeker” (1899)
Alice Dunbar-Nelson, “Sister Josepha” (1899)
Pauline E. Hopkins, “A Dash for Liberty” (1901) and “As the Lord Lives, He is One of Our Mother’s Children” (1903)
W. E. B. DuBois, “Of Our Spiritual Strivings” and “Of the Meaning of Progress” (from
The Souls of Black Folk, 1903)
14. Selected Readings: Taking Charge of African American Art & Culture: The Harlem Renaissance
Jessie Fauset, “Emmy” (1912-13)
Jean Toomer, “Blood-Burning Moon” (from Cane, 1923)
Alain Locke, “The New Negro” (1925)
Arna Bontemps, “A Summer Tragedy” (1933)
Zora Neale Hurston, “Sweat” (1926), “How it Feels to be Colored Me” (1928), and "The Gilded Six-Bits” (1933)
15. Detective Story by Imre Kertesz
16. Selected Readings: The Struggle for Equality: The Struggle for Civil Rights
Richard Wright, “Big Boy Leaves Home” (1936) and “The Man who was Almost a Man” (1961)
Ralph Ellison, Chapter 1 of Invisible Man (“Battle Royal”) (1952)
James Baldwin, “Sonny’s Blues” (1957)
Martin Luther King, Jr., “Letter from a Birmingham Jail” (1963)
Alice Walker, “Nineteen Fifty-Five” (1981)
17. Selected Readings: Black Power Art: Aesthetics and Politics in the Black Arts Movement
Larry Neal, “And Shine Swam On” (1969) and “Malcolm X – An Autobiography” (1969)
Etheridge Knight, “It Was a Funky Deal” and “For Malcolm, A Year After”
Amiri Baraka, “Preface to a Twenty Volume Suicide Note” (1957) and “Black Art” (1966)
Robert Hayden, “El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz” (1969)
18. John Henry Days by Colson Whitehead
19. Quo Vadis by Henryk Sienkiewicz
20. The Woman in the Dunes by Kobo Abe
21. Facing the Torturer by Francois Bizot
22. This Craft of Verse by Jorge Luis Borges
23. Death of the Mantis by Michael Stanley
24. Remembering Babylon by David Malouf
25. In A Free State by V.S. Naipaul
26. The Last Train to Zona Verde: My Ultimate African Safari by Paul Theroux
27. Come on Shore and We Will Kill and Eat You All: A New Zealand Story by Christina Thompson

Completed Reads: August - December 2013

28. Trapeze by Simon Mawer
29. Zoo Station by David Downing
30. The Spider's House by Paul Bowles
31. The Silent Angel by Heinrich Boll
32. Echoes from the Other Land by Ava Homa
33. Polar Dream by Helen Thayer
34. Harvest by Jim Crace
35. Play It Again: An Amateur Against the Impossible by Alan Rusbridger
36. Still Life by Louise Penny
37. The Keeper of Lost Causes by Jussi Adler-Olsen
38. Sleet by Stig Dagerman
39. Barabbas by Par Lagerkvist
40. The Antigone Poems by Marie Slaight

Completed Nobel Reads

2010 - Mario Vargas Llosa
Death in the Andes, The Storyteller, Who Killed Palomino Molero?
2009 - Herta Müller:
The Hunger Angel – June 2012
2008 - Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clézio
Desert – 2011, The Round & Other Cold Hard Facts – July 2012
2007 - Doris Lessing
The Cleft - 2010, The Grass Is Singing - August 2012
2006 - Orhan Pamuk
Snow, The Naïve and the Sentimental Novelist – June 2012
2004 - Elfriede Jelinek
The Piano Teacher
2003 - John M. Coetzee
Disgrace, Life & Times of Michael K., Youth: Scenes from
Provincial Life II, Summertime: Scenes from Provincial Life, Here and Now: Letters (2008-2011) - March 2013
2002 - Imre Kertész
Fatelessness - July 2012, Detective Story - April 2013
2001 - Sir Vidiadhar Surajprasad Naipaul
In A Free State - June 2013
2000 - Gao Xingjia
Soul Mountain
1999 - Günter Grass
The Tin Drum
1998 - José Saramago
Blindness – I abandoned this three quarters of the way through, but plan to go back and finish it. The Double, The Cave
1997 - Dario Fo
My First Seven Years (Plus A Few More): A Memoir
1995 - Seamus Heaney
Human Chain – April 2012
1994 - Kenzaburo Oe
Rouse Up O Young Men of the New Age! – March 2012
1993 - Toni Morrison
Beloved
1991 - Nadine Gordimer
The House Gun, None to Accompany Me, Sport of Nature, Loot and Other Stories, The Pickup, Get A Life
1988 - Naguib Mahfouz
Arabian Nights and Days – July 2012
1983 - William Golding
Lord of the Flies
1982 - Gabriel García Márquez
One Hundred Years of Solitude, Love in the Time of Cholera, News of a Kidnapping
1973 - Patrick White
The Vivisector – November 2012
1972 - Heinrich Böll
The Safety Net, The Silent Angel - September 2013
1970 - Aleksandr Isayevich Solzhenitsyn
The Gulag Archipelago Three, One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich
1968 - Yasunari Kawabata
Beauty and Sadness - September 2012
1964 - Jean-Paul Sartre
Nausea
1962 - John Steinbeck
Grapes of Wrath, Of Mice and Men, East of Eden, The Winter of our Discontent
1958 - Boris Leonidovich Pasternak
Doctor Zhivago
1957 - Albert Camus
The Stranger, The Plague
1954 - Ernest Miller Hemingway
For Whom the Bell Tolls, The Old Man and the Sea, The Sun Also Rises, A Farewell to Arms
1952 - François Mauriac
The Lamb - February 2013
1951 - Par Fabian Lagerkvist
Barabbas - December 2013
1949 - William Faulkner
The Sound and the Fury, As I Lay Dying, Light in August, Sanctuary
1948 - Thomas Stearns Eliot
I have read The Wasteland and Prufrock, but do not recall the actual book editions.
1947 - André Paul Guillaume Gide
Notes on Chopin - December 2012
1946 - Hermann Hesse
Siddhartha, Steppenwolf
1928 - Sigrid Undset
Kristin Lavransdatter - August 2012
1920 - Knut Pedersen Hamsun
Pan
1905 - Henryk Sienkiewicz
Quo Vadis- May 2013

Nobelists Unread

2013 - Alice Munro
2012 - Mo Yan
2011 - Tomas Tranströmer
2005 - Harold Pinter
1996 - Wislawa Szymborska
1992 - Derek Walcott
1990 - Octavio Paz
1989 - Camilo José Cela
1987 - Joseph Brodsky
1986 - Wole Soyinka
1985 - Claude Simon
1984 - Jaroslav Seifert
1981 - Elias Canetti
1980 - Czeslaw Milosz
1979 - Odysseus Elytis
1978 - Isaac Bashevis Singer
1977 - Vicente Aleixandre
1976 - Saul Bellow
1975 - Eugenio Montale
1974 - Eyvind Johnson
1974 - Harry Martinson
1971 - Pablo Neruda
1969 - Samuel Beckett
1967 - Miguel Angel Asturias
1966 - Shmuel Yosef Agnon
1966 - Nelly Sachs
1965 - Mikhail Aleksandrovich Sholokhov
1963 - Giorgos Seferis
1961 - Ivo Andric
1960 - Saint-John Perse
1959 - Salvatore Quasimodo
1956 - Juan Ramón Jiménez
1955 - Halldór Kiljan Laxness
1953 - Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill
1950 - Earl (Bertrand Arthur William) Russell
1945 - Gabriela Mistral
1944 - Johannes Vilhelm Jensen
1939- Frans Eemil Sillanpää
1938 - Pearl Buck
1937 - Roger Martin du Gard
1936 - Eugene Gladstone O'Neill
1934 - Luigi Pirandello
1933 - Ivan Alekseyevich Bunin
1932 - John Galsworthy
1931 - Erik Axel Karlfeldt
1930 - Sinclair Lewis
1929 - Thomas Mann
1927 - Henri Bergson
1926 - Grazia Deledda
1925 - George Bernard Shaw
1924 - Wladyslaw Stanislaw Reymont
1923 - William Butler Yeats
1922 - Jacinto Benavente
1921 - Anatole France
1919 - Carl Friedrich Georg Spitteler
1917 - Karl Adolph Gjellerup
1917 - Henrik Pontoppidan
1916 - Carl Gustaf Verner von Heidenstam
1915 - Romain Rolland
1913 - Rabindranath Tagore
1912 - Gerhart Johann Robert Hauptmann
1911 - Count Maurice (Mooris) Polidore Marie Bernhard Maeterlinck
1910 - Paul Johann Ludwig Heyse
1909 - Selma Ottilia Lovisa Lagerlöf
1908 - Rudolf Christoph Eucken
1907 - Rudyard Kipling
1906 - Giosuè Carducci
1904 - Frédéric Mistral
1904 - José Echegaray y Eizaguirre
1903 - Bjørnstjerne Martinus Bjørnson
1902 - Christian Matthias Theodor Mommsen
1901 - Sully Prudhomme
No prize awarded: 1914, 1918, 1935, 1940, 1941, 1942, 1943

Here and Now: Letters (2008-2011) by Paul Auster and J.M. Coetzee

I purchased this book with high expectations for the correspondence between two accomplished authors, Paul Auster and J.M. Coetzee, the latter a personal favorite of mine and the recipient of a Nobel Prize for Literature.

Coetzee and Auster began the correspondence that makes up this volume with the intent of “striking sparks off each other”. Written between July 2008 and August 2011, the letters open with a discussion of the source and meaning of friendship, a subject Coetzee indicates having researched at the library before sitting down to write, although the result reveals little of any depth. After a few letters focused on the differences between friendship and love, the inability to mix friendship and sexual attraction, and talk of the flu, Auster introduces the topics of sports and money. Coetzee responds with the guilty confession that he put aside his reading in order to spend most of a Sunday watching cricket on television. ”Is sport simply like sin: one disapproves of it but one yields because the flesh is weak?” Paul, who agrees that watching sports on television is a useless pursuit, somehow then manages to justify it by deciding ”…that games have a strong narrative component.” And sadly, on it goes for nearly the first year. Once the discussion moved beyond sports, the subjects covered ranged quite broadly, with the Palestinian-Israeli conflict seeming to stir the most passionate response.

I came away from this book with mixed feelings. Although I did enjoy some of the discussion, my general reaction was one of disappointment. I had expected to find erudite conversation about literature and life, and hoped also for the opportunity to see a more personal side of Coetzee, who has a reputation for being quite private. However, most of the letters were fairly brief, rather prosaic and lacking in depth. Reading private correspondence usually has a voyeuristic feeling to it that seemed absent from this volume. The letters seem studied, more like brief topical essays than intimate correspondence between friends. And although there are many references of a personal nature, none seemed particularly revealing, and I was left wondering if these letters were written in anticipation of being published.

On the up side, it felt somewhat satisfying to know that even renowned authors are “just folks” at times, and I might even be capable of holding my own in conversation with them.

Trapeze by Simon Mawer

Marian Sutro is fluently bilingual in English and French, and sufficiently young and naïve to be somewhat fearless. Recruited by the mysterious “Inter-Services Research Bureau”, she is trained in espionage and deployed to Nazi-occupied Paris. Left largely in the dark regarding the nature and details of her primary mission, she is secretly approached by a second agency and enlisted to convince an ex-boyfriend and prominent physicist to return to London and assist the Allies in their nuclear ambitions.

I was drawn to this book by Mawer’s interesting choice of subject, inspired by the select group of female British field agents who worked behind enemy lines during WWII. While I enjoyed the book as a light read, aspects of it were disappointing. I found it difficult to care much about the characters as individuals, although they were generally sympathetic as operatives in a plot-based thriller. I was put-off by the inclusion of a romantic element that at times felt schmaltzy, overdone, and geared to a popular fiction genre, while adding little to the literary merit of the story. For me, the narrative also lacked the depth and tension that the subject matter deserved, and the ending was fairly predictable.

This was the first of Mawer’s books that I have read and I will likely revisit this author, as I own The Glass Room and a few others of his books look interesting. But I will approach them with a different set of expectations than I brought to Trapeze.

Your progress on your Nobel list is impressive!

I wonder what prompted Coetzee and Auster to publish their private correspondence; did they say? Were these really letters, or were they emails? It sounds like it's nothing special, so maybe they just needed some cash to pay for a subscription to the Cricket Channel. (I'm being flippant, but I do like what I've read from both authors.)

I haven't read Mawer. I have one of his books, but it's well down on the priority list at this point.

I liked The Glass Room when I read it, although I felt it was marred by an unbelievable plot coincidence, but in retrospect I don't find it has stuck with me. That's why I avoided Trapeze when I saw it in the bookstore, and your review doesn't encourage me to change my mind.

Perhaps the art of letter writing really is dead.

> Steven, I saw Auster and Coetzee read from these letters last year, but there was no indication that I recall of why they decided to publish them. The only thing I remember about why they even decided to write to each other is the quote about "striking sparks off each other". They were actual letters, although there are a few references made to e-mails that were also sent. Hearing them read was more interesting at the time than reading them turned out to be.

> Rebecca, one of the reasons I decided to read Trapeze was remembering the positive reviews that The Glass Room received, although I'm in no big hurry to read that now. I find that I am more inclined to take a chance on a book that I see at the library than on one I am purchasing, which may explain this and Zoo Station, which I read at the same time and thought was slightly better, but still not great.

>Sadly, that is probably true, Barry. But I have recently added collections of letters by Patrick White (thanks to you!), Patrick White Letters, and V.S. Naipaul, Between Father and Son: Family Letters, to my library and am hoping that they stand up better to the art form.

I echo the "Why publish?" and recall some disappointment when you listened to their conversation last year. Although I enjoyed Auster's recent memoir on aging, Winter Journal, I also wondered why-publish about it.

You recall correctly, MJ. I am always curious about the person behind the author and their writing process. Most of the talks I attend are informal seminar style, with a great deal of audience interaction. My disappointment with Auster and Coetzee was largely related to the fact that no Q&A was allowed and the authors shared little of themselves, other than reading their letters.

I'm jumping ahead to your most recent thread, but find that I want to go back and see what you thought of Quo Vadis, Come on Shore and some of your other recent reads that I have missed. I enjoy your reviews very much. This spring I read both of the Simon Mawer books that you mention. I picked up Trapeze as a fun spy novel, with little expectation of literary merit, so I was not disappointed and was able to enjoy it as such. I had higher hopes for The Glass Room, but was disappointed with it. The idea of making the house a character in the novel was an interesting idea, but I found most of the characters hollow and the several remarkable coincidences unbelievable. I think I only gave it 2.5 stars. I'll be curious to see what you think. Several people whose literary opinions I value have raved about it.

Hi Lisa. Great to see you back! I've missed you on the threads. Hope all is well with you.

I am very behind on my reviews, so some you may look for won't be there. Quo Vadis is, but I haven't gotten to Come on Shore yet. I hope to work on getting somewhat caught up over the next few weeks, as I have some time before things get very busy in the Fall. But I'm doing it in a disorganized kind of way, writing reviews as the spirit moves me, rather than in the order that I read the books.

African-American Literature

Last Spring I attended a 5-session seminar on African-American literature. Although some months have now passed, I am still hoping to record some thoughts on the works that we read.

Week 1 –“ Forging Identity in Post-Reconstruction America: The Turn of the Century”

African American literature of the Post-Reconstruction period reflects the problems that were faced by blacks who were learning to live with their new freedoms, while still profoundly impacted by racial conflict, violence, discrimination, segregation and disenfranchisement under the Jim Crow laws. The following short stories and excerpts were the first works by African American authors of this period that I have read. These authors were highly skilled writers, able to capture the reader’s imagination and attention. I was struck by several things that their works had in common. The first, which would continue also into our later readings, was the question they raised for me of the racial composition of their intended audiences. Were these authors writing to a white audience, a black audience, or both? Idealized stories of antebellum plantation life were popular during this period and several of the stories we read seemed to play to this sentimentality. Each reflects a concern with exploring issues of identity and self-definition, as well as the social impacts of both race and gender. Mixed race issues were frequently present, with many of the characters portrayed as light-skinned. This seemed to reflect certain commonalities in the authors' backgrounds, with all but one having been born in the north, and three being of obvious mixed race.

Charles Chesnutt was the son of free blacks. Born in Ohio, but raised in North Carolina, he returned to Cleveland as an adult. “The Goophered Grapevine” was the first short story written by an African American to be published in the Atlantic Monthly. Chesnutt went on to publish collections of his short stories and several novels through Houghton Mifflin. Very light and fine-featured, Chestnutt’s fiction revealed an interest in mixed race issues. He later abandoned his literary career to become the first Secretary of the NAACP.

“The Goophered Grapevine” (1899) - A man and his wife seek to relocate for health reasons from the Great Lakes region to North Carolina, where they become interested in purchasing a vineyard. While visiting a prospective site, they encounter Uncle Julius, an elderly black man who regales them with a fantastic story of the vineyard being “goophered” (bewitched) due to the past owner having hired a local conjurer to cast a spell as a means of preventing his grapes from being eaten by his slaves.

I found myself reading much of this story aloud, as the voice of Uncle Julius is written in heavy dialect, recounting a story of antebellum plantation life. Such stories were popular in late-nineteenth century America, playing on the sentimentality of white readers. Although on the surface, I initially found this distasteful in its association with this genre, “The Goophered Grapevine” revealed itself to be quite different, in that it portrays a former slave using this sentimentality for the past as a means of manipulating whites.

“The Wife of His Youth” (1898) –The Blue Vein Society is a biracial organization, most of whose members are more white than black. Mr. Ryder is not as white as some, but his features are refined and his hair almost straight. He is courting a pretty mulatto and planning to propose at a Society Ball, when a woman appears who is seeking her husband “Sam” from many years past. This woman is very black, her appearance aged beyond her years, and not at all refined, presenting Mr. Ryder with the moral dilemma of whether to acknowledge that he is in fact Sam.

Paul Laurence Dunbar was the son of former slaves, born in Ohio to a father who fought as a Union soldier during the Civil War. He was best known for stories and poetry that were written in dialect and portrayed a romanticized view of plantation life. Although much of his fiction was not of this nature and some was actually “raceless”, he was heavily criticized both for the inauthenticity of the dialect and for portraying racial stereotypes.

“Cornelius Johnson, Office-Seeker” (1899) – Mr. Cornelius Johnson is a black man who has been a key force in campaigning to procure the colored vote in Alabama. After his candidate is successfully elected, he visits Washington D.C, expecting to collect his promised reward. Treated with great courtesy, he is assured that he has not been forgotten, but that there will be delays. Months go by while the excuses and delays multiply. His wife and child become ill and he must mortgage his home to care for his family. At long last, his financial resources having been exhausted, he is told that his appointment is forthcoming, only to be lost when Congress refuses to confirm him due to alleged irregularities in his campaign methods.

This story was interesting in its portrayal of an early black politician, working on behalf of a white candidate, and ultimately left embittered. Dunbar chose to make Mr. Johnson light-skinned (referring to his “yellow face”) and refined. Addressed initially by others as “Mr." and “Professor”, he gradually loses this status and becomes just “Cornelius”. It was notable that in this story, Dunbar refers to black women as brave, strong and patient, and black men as less so, as it was Cornelius’s uncomplaining wife, who ultimately provided physical, emotional and financial support for her husband.

African American Literature Week 1 Continued

Alice Dunbar Nelson was of mixed African, Native American and white ancestry, born into the Creole society of postbellum New Orleans and sufficiently light-skinned to pass as white. She was briefly married to Paul Laurence Dunbar. Although greatly concerned with racial issues, Nelson was known to have herself harbored negative feelings towards blacks who were dark-skinned, uneducated or unrefined. But despite this, she worked for both racial and feminist causes.

“Sister Josepha” (1899) – Camille comes to the Convent du Sacre Coeur as an orphaned three year old child, where she lives happily, blossoming into a beautiful and confident teenager. When a lecherous man and his wife express interest in adopting her, she begs to remain under the protection of the convent by becoming a nun. However, as Sister Josepha, she comes to find life in the convent suffocating. At first oblivious to the oppressive impact of her race and uncertain parentage, she gradually becomes aware of the severely limited options available to her. She suffers from the self-torture of wondering about her own identity and seems to be oppressed more by her lack of family and identity than by her race, with her beauty also posing a dangerous vulnerability.

Pauline E. Hopkins was born in Maine, and raised and educated in Boston. A strong feminist, her fiction reflected her outrage at the victimization and sexual exploitation of black women by white men. Hopkin’s stories were the only ones we read from this period that addressed the horrors of slavery and the violence inflicted on blacks. In addition, her stories were among the few, other than Chestnutt’s, where blacks prevailed, and the only ones where this occurred through physical force, with black males presented as heroes.

“A Dash for Liberty” (1901)- Madison is a fugitive slave of unmixed heritage and strong physique, who has escaped to freedom in Canada, where he has secured gainful employment with a farmer. Despite his employer’s advice to the contrary, Madison decides to return to Virginia to rescue his wife, a beautiful octoroon (one-eighth African America) whose grandfather had served in the Revolutionary War, as well as in both Houses of Congress. Recaptured in a violent confrontation, Madison is sent by ship to be sold in New Orleans. Unbeknownst to him, his wife is also on board. She is attacked by the captain, who intends to molest her, but escapes and while passing the male slaves, catches the attention of Madison. In the melee that follows, Madison prevails in taking control of the ship, reunited with his wife and landing safely at Nassau, New Providence.

In this story, Hopkins asserts the importance of being morally right and the belief that justice will prevail. “Every act of oppression is a weapon for the oppressed. Right is a dangerous instrument; woe to us if our enemy wields it.”

I found the depiction of the heroine in this story as a beautiful octoroon to be somewhat contradictory to Hopkins’ rage at black women being raped by white men. However, her choice of a magnificently handsome, male protagonist of unmixed race, who dominates his white captors through physical force, seemed more in line with her perspective.

“As the Lord Lives, He is One of Our Mother’s Children” (1903) - A minister witnesses a mob breaking into a prison, with the apparent support of the local police, killing several innocent people along the way, one being a young black newsboy. Their purpose is the lynching of two black men who are accused of murder. However, only one is found and hanged, a strong, prideful man as black as ebony. The other accused, educated and able to pass as white, has escaped. A month later, the minister finds a man who identifies as George Stone lying in a creek, ill and destitute, and takes him in as a guest. Stone endears himself to the family, working around the house, playing with and winning the adoration of the minister’s son, and eventually becoming sexton of the church. One day Reverend Stevens comes across a wanted poster describing “Gentleman Jim”, an escaped black prisoner who is wanted for murder. Believing that he recognizes George Stoner as the man described, he confronts him, and after hearing his story, believes in his innocence. To avoid capture, George leaves and secures a job building a road in another State, where fate leads him to commit a supreme act of heroism.

African American Literature Week 1 Continued

W. E. B. DuBois was born five years following Lincoln’s signing of the Emancipation Proclamation and benefited in his early years from a public education in Massachusetts. After becoming the first African American to obtain a Ph.D., Du Bois became increasingly disillusioned with what he perceived as a lack of progress towards racial equality. Visiting the Soviet Union in 1927, he became enamored of the principles of Communism. At age ninety-three, he joined the communist party, denounced his American citizenship and moved to Ghana where he died on the eve of Martin Luther King’s I Have A Dream Speech. The essays that comprise The Souls of Black Folk (1903) were his most famous works, of which we read two. The themes that these addressed added considerably to my understanding of those explored by the other authors that we had read.

In “Of Our Spiritual Strivings”, DuBois contends that “…the problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” Borrowing a metaphor from the Bible, he refers to the division between black and white America as the “Veil”, a visual manifestation of the color line and the differences in perception of blacks and whites. Despite being of mixed race and raised in New England, Du Bois grew up acutely aware of issues of color. “How does it feel to be a problem…And yet , being a problem is a strange experience, - peculiar even for one who has never been anything else, save perhaps in babyhood and in Europe.” His boyhood realization that he was different did not lead to a desire to tear down the veil that shut him out from the world of his white schoolmates. Rather, it lead to a sense of contempt and motivated his efforts to excel. As an adult, disappointed in the promise of freedom and the dream of achieving political power, DuBois believed that education was the way forward. And despite the wretched history of slavery, he seems to hold no bitterness towards whites.

The history of the American Negro is the history of this strife-this longing to attain self-conscious manhood, to merge his double self into a better and truer self. In this merging he wishes neither of the older selves to be lost. He would not Africanize America, for America has too much to teach the world and Africa. He would not bleach his Negro soul in a flood of white Americanism, for he knows that Negro blood has a message for the world. He simply wishes to make it possible for a man to be both a Negro and an American, without being cursed and spit upon by his fellows, without having the doors of Opportunity closed roughly in his face...

The bright ideals of the past – physical freedom, political power, the training of the brains and the training of hands, - all these in turn have waxed and waned…To be really true, all these ideals must be melted and welded into one…Work, culture, liberty, - all these need, not singly but together, not successively but together, each growing and aiding each, and all striving towards that vaster ideal that swims before the Negro people, the ideal of human brotherhood, gained through the unifying ideal of Race; the ideal of fostering and developing the traits and talents of the Negro, not in opposition to or contempt for other races, but rather in large conformity to the greater ideals of the American Republic, in order that some day on American soil two world-races may give each to each those characteristics both so sadly lack.

In “Of the Meaning of Progress”, DuBois relates his experience teaching school at a country school for blacks in Tennessee. His students showed interest and promise, but were drawn away to work in the fields and by the doubts of the older generation regarding the utility of education. Returning after ten years to this school, he found his former students to be, gone, dead, or living hard lives of early marriage, child-rearing and physical labor. None had succeeded in furthering their education. “In that little valley was a strange stillness as I rode up; for death and marriage had stolen youth and left age and childhood there.”

Wow. This is amazing, Linda. Thank you for taking the time to share your thoughts with us. The line “Every act of oppression is a weapon for the oppressed. Right is a dangerous instrument; woe to us if our enemy wields it.” made me pause. It brings to mind all the times that the US has acted wrongly in its dealings with the Islamic world and how that has been turned against whatever good we might be trying to do.

This looks good, Linda. My eyes are getting heavy and my brain is shutting off, so I'll look at your posts in detail tomorrow morning. TYIA!

This is fascinating, Linda, and this is just the first week! Thank you so much for sharing this with us. I was familiar with Paul Dunbar and of course W. E. B. Dubois, about whom I read a lengthy (two-volume) and interesting biography some years ago (by David Levering Lewis). I am looking forward to your posts about the rest of the course.

I'm also fascinated by everything in those three posts. And I'm very curious about the next weeks. Thanks for sharing.

How much time did you get for the readings Linda? Thanks for sharing them with us; they are great.

Thanks everyone. This seminar was a great introduction for me, as I was unfamiliar with many of the authors from the earlier periods. Given the high quality of their writing, it bothers me a great deal that I can recall no African American literature from any period being included in my high school education.

>19 labfs39: Lisa, I agree that that quote is very powerful and gives one much to contemplate. Unfortunately, in today's complicated world, what is right seems often to be genuinely debatable. I would like to read more by Pauline Hopkins, as her stories were quite different than those of the other authors, with blacks featured in heroic roles.

>20 kidzdoc: Oh, I hope that I did not help to contribute to that condition, Darryl!

>21 rebeccanyc: Rebecca, I own W.E.B. DuBois: A Biography which is updated and condensed into one volume from earlier works. I see that you own W.E.B. DuBois: Biography of a Race, 1868-1919 and W.E.B. DuBois: The Fight for Equality and the American Century, 1919-1963. Are those the two volumes that you read? I'm guessing they may be the works that were combined in the later edition.

>22 dchaikin: Dan, I'm happy to share, just very slow to do so! I also fell down on the job of summarizing the Writers Institute events that I attended last Spring. But I will keep plugging away at recording the remaining weeks of this seminar, as I want to record some thoughts before they totally fade from my memory.

>23 baswood: Barry, the class met once a week for 5 weeks and the readings were e-mailed to us, usually about two weeks in advance of the relevant session, so it was fairly easy to stay on top of things. The fifth week was discussion of a full-length book that I knew about for several months in advance.

Linda, yes those are the ones I read. But it was a while ago, and I don't remember them very well. It would probably make sense to combine them.

In retrospect, I'm impressed that we had a unit (maybe a semester) on African-American writers when i was in high school. It was just after the period of riots, so I imagine that had an impact on the school administration. My recollection is it most focused on early writers; at least that's what I remember from it. We read Cane by Jean Toomer and an anthology called American Negro Poetry collected by Arna Bontemps, both of which I still have. I'm sure we read other books, but I just don't remember.

>24 Linda92007: Not at all, Linda!

Fabulous summaries of these early African American authors. I'm most familiar with Charles Chestnutt and W.E.B. Du Bois, but several others were completely unfamiliar to me. I have Chestnutt's and Du Bois's Library of America collections, but I've only read part of them. I haven't read anything by Dunbar since high school, and I've read nothing by the other authors. I look forward to your subsequent posts on this topic!

Thanks Darryl. I should explore the Library of America collections. This seminar experience has left me feeling that there is a richness to American literature from earlier periods that I have not yet fully explored.

Linda, what an amazing discussion. I think you've pointed me off in yet another direction.

Thanks Sassy. Isn't it amazing to discover whole fields of literature just waiting to be explored?

The Library of America is definitely one of the things that Americans can be proud of, as the books are published in very beautiful editions at low prices, the LOA being a non-for-profit publisher. Unfortunately, in some countries importers make huge profits on these books.

>30 edwinbcn: That's interesting, Edwin. Is that true in China? In order for the importers to make huge profits, there must be a large demand for the books. Is that true in general for books written in English or is it specific to these particular editions?

>31 Linda92007:

My comments about the sales price of the books of the LOA were not about China. Unfortunately, I have not seen them in Chinese bookstores. I believe that the price on Amazon. China is reasonably close to the American prices.

My comments were about the Netherlands. There, books of the LOA that have a LIST PRICE of 35 - 40 USD are sold for 35 - 40 EURO (which equals 47 - 53 USD. Currently, the exchange rate of the euro is low. The difference above is based on the List Price, but the book seller probably gets the book at a lower price (I did not check the subscription price). Penguin Books is the worldwide distributor.

I have been away from my LT threads this fall due to major surgery, but recovery has gone well and I am anxious to get caught up here. I have been reading, but have given up any hope of completing all of my pending reviews and will settle for brief comments on some. I have also been following many threads, although not commenting. But not for lack of interest – much fascinating reading going on!

Play It Again: An Amateur Against the Impossible by Alan Rusbridger

Alan Rusbridger is a serious amateur pianist who happens to also be editor-in-chief of the Guardian. After participating in a gathering of amateur players in the Lot Valley of France, he sets himself a goal of mastering the Chopin Ballade No. 1 in G Minor, Op. 23. Play It Again: An Amateur Against the Impossible is a fascinating account of this pursuit, the details of which are intermingled with his selection of a Faziola grand piano to be housed in a newly built, music room at a family cottage north of London. The ensuing sixteen months of study are also concurrent with a particularly stressful period at the Guardian, and Rusbridger shares bits related to Julian Assange and WikiLeaks, phone hacking, and other major global stories. But it is the music that is dominant here. Rusbridger has the resources and connections to pursue his piano studies at an exceptional level, despite his challenge with limited time and struggles with memorization. Rusbridger’s account contains both technical and interpretive advice from master teachers and professional pianists (including among others, Murray Perahia, Emmanuel Ax, and Alfred Brendel), summarized in closing in a notated copy of the score, accompanied by his own and expert commentary.

Being an amateur pianist myself, I find narratives that focus on pieces that might be within my range to be irresistible. Chopin’s Ballades fall within this category - seriously challenging and perhaps, as a whole, a bit beyond my technical abilities, yet endlessly enticing from a musical perspective. I have played parts of Ballade No. 1 for some time, but without benefit of a teacher or systematic practice. My Kindle copy of this book is now covered with highlights in hopes that I will someday commit to serious study of this entire piece. If I could emulate Rusbridger’s success in making it reasonably through the entire piece, I would be ecstatic.

I'm sorry to hear that you've had to have surgery and glad your recovery is going well. I had two hip replacements in the last year and understand how hard it can be to get caught up in LT land. You are wise not to try and review all your reads, although I enjoyed your last one. My daughter started piano lessons this fall, and it has been both fun and ear-tagonizing! I played a little as a youngster and would like to start lessons as an adult, but don't know where to begin. Even which type of instructor to seek out.

Great to see you posting again on your thread Linda and I wish you all the best with your recovery.

Play it Again: An amateur against the impossible is a book that I could relate to as well as I am currently struggling with J S Bach's Partita no 1 on my saxophone. Whatever stage you are at with playing a musical instrument there is usually a piece of music that seems out of reach, but it does not stop you trying and my struggles are a far cry from Rusbridger's attempt at mastering the Chopin ballade. A fascinating process nonetheless

Thanks Lisa and Barry. It's good to be back, although trying to catch up feels rather daunting.

Lisa, I can relate to your uncertainties about selecting a piano teacher. Maybe your daughter's teacher could make some suggestions? My mother taught piano and I took formal lessons (from others) for ten years. While that has given me a basis for working on my own, I know that my technique could benefit from a good teacher and the discipline that lessons would impose. But I also have no idea how to go about finding the right one for me.

Barry, I think it is great that you are pursuing your interest in saxophone. I found Rusbridger's book very motivating. I have a tendency to spend my time just playing for enjoyment, and his struggles reminded me of the importance of serious practice.

Sorry about your surgery and how hard it must be on you. I wish you well. I'm really happy to you here posting again.

Linda, I am glad to hear that you are on the mend, and hope your recovery is speedy.

Play It Again: An Amateur Against the Impossible sounds interesting. I took piano lessons for a very short time as a child. Lessons were just too expensive for my parents, and practice on a cardboard keyboard was rather unfulfilling. It is something I wish I had been able to continue.

I'm very glad to see your posts.

Welcome back, Linda. I'm glad everything went well.

Thanks Dan, Colleen and Steven. I have definitely been the beneficiary of the marvels of modern medicine!

I had this mostly completed a few months ago and still hope to summarize the reading from the remaining three weeks.

African American Literature
Week Two: Taking Charge of African American Art & Culture: The Harlem Renaissance

The explosion of African American art and culture in the late 19th and early 20th centuries was centered in Harlem, taking place against the backdrop of the Great Migration (c1917). Defined rather loosely as lasting for between 10 and 35 years, the Harlem Renaissance served as a precursor to the Civil Rights and Black Arts movements of the 1960s.

The readings assigned from this period dealt heavily with the evolving definition of race and the relationships amongst race, color, culture and identity. W.E.B. Dubois’ concept of double-consciousness is strongly evident in Fauset, Toomer and Hurston’s works, as characters struggle to reconcile their own sense of identity with how they are perceived by others, and especially whites. Characters of mixed race question how to self-identity, but as much out of socioeconomic concerns as purely racial ones. The stories also address the relationships between men and women, but while race remains a factor, it is not the sole driving issue. Rather, a more universal human experience begins to emerge.

Zora Neale Hurston (1891 - 1960 ) was revolutionary for her time, in that she questioned race as a biological concept. She approaches her awareness of color and racial identity as essential to who she is, but from more of a cultural than a biological standpoint.

“How It Feels To Be Colored Me” (1928) is an essay that explores Hurston’s gradual awareness of being colored. Raised as a young child in the exclusively colored town of Eatonville, Florida, her sole exposure to whites was from those passing through. Her awareness of her identity as a person of color begins when she is sent to school in Jacksonville at age thirteen. I found Hurston’s observations in this short piece to be delightfully wise.

But I am not tragically colored. There is no great sorrow damned up in my soul, not lurking behind my eyes. I do not mind at all. I do not belong to the sobbing school of Negrohood who hold that nature somehow has given them a lowdown dirty deal and whose feelings are all hurt about it. Even in the helter-skelter skirmish that is my life, I have seen that the world is to the strong regardless of a little pigmentation more or less. No, I do not weep at the world – I am too busy sharpening my oyster knife.

…Slavery is the price I paid for civilization, and the choice was not with me…

I do not always feel colored…I feel most colored when I am thrown against a sharp white background…

But in the main, I feel like a brown bag of miscellany propped against a wall. Against a wall in company with other bags, white, red and yellow. Pour out the contents, and there is discovered a jumble of small things priceless and worthless… In your hand is the brown bag. On the ground before you is the jumble it held – so much like the jumble in the bags, could they be emptied, that all might be dumped in a single heap and the bags refilled without altering the contents of any greatly…Perhaps that is how the Great Stuffer of Bags filled them in the first place – who knows?

“Sweat” (1926) – Delia Jones takes great pride in her work as a laundress, as the primary source of support for her family. Her husband, Sykes, is a no-good philanderer, who interferes with Delia’s work while supporting a mistress. Knowing that Delia is afraid of snakes, Sykes taunts her, by bringing home rattlesnakes and hiding them in her clothes hamper. Delia frees herself of this hateful man in a deathly encounter between Sykes and the rattlesnake.

“The Gilded Six-Bits” (1933) – Missie May’s husband, Joe, makes a playful, weekly ritual of furtively throwing silver dollars in their doorway and showering her with small gifts. Their marriage seems near idyllic until a new man in town tempts Missie may with the promise of gold pieces, and they are caught in a tryst by Joe. Missie May and Joe’s unspoken reconciliation was somewhat puzzling, but clearly a universal tale of male-female relationships, rather than a racially-based story.

African American Literature Week 2 Continued

Jessie Fauset (1882 - 1961) was the daughter of affluent African Americans and the first black woman to attend Cornell University, graduating Phi Beta Kappa and later studying at the University of Pennsylvania and the Sorbonne. In addition to being a teacher, she was active in the NAACP, and wrote essays, poems, short stories and four novels.

“Emmy” (1912-13) – As a child, Emmy attends an integrated school and is blissfully unaware of the implications of being black. However, her teacher, Miss Wenzel, is disturbed that Emmy’s mother used to live in France, has a French maid, and makes a good living as a translator. Emmy’s nice clothes and appearance remind Miss Wenzel of her own sense of failure and she decides it is her duty to impress upon Emmy that she is different than her white schoolmates. Although her consciousness of racial issues grows as she enters adulthood, Emmy remains self-confident, while her light-skinned boyfriend, Archie, struggles with the dilemma of whether to acknowledge his black blood or “…leave well enough alone…” Concerned about the potential ramifications for employment, he decides to keep the secret of his race from a prospective employer. Although never wavering in his intent to marry Emmy, he encounters complications when his employer sees them together and assumes that she is his black mistress. When Archie suggests postponement of their marriage for purely financial reasons, Emmy assumes that he is ashamed of her color and proclaims that she no longer loves him.

This story is an excellent example of double consciousness, clearly exemplifying the dilemma for Archie, as a mixed race individual, of how to self-identify. It also introduces issues of social class as a major component of one’s identity. Archie doesn’t want to be white, he just wants the associated economic benefits. Emmy, although clearly black, is of a higher social class than would be expected, resulting variously in reactions of acceptance by her peers and jealousy and resentment from her teacher. Unlike most of the assigned stories, “Emmy” has a thoroughly happy ending, as Archie’s worth is ultimately recognized by his employer.

Jean Toomer was of mixed parentage, raised in a wealthy, white, Washington D.C neighborhood, and seems to have not identified with any specific ethnic group. His book Cane incorporates fiction, drama and poetry and is highly regarded as a work of literary achievement.

“Blood-Burning Moon” (from Cane, 1923) uses the structure of a love triangle to explore the issue of interracial romance, each character’s perspective represented. Louisa is a beautiful young black, woman who is loved by Bob Stone, the son of the white family that employs her as kitchen help. Bob struggles with the changes that the end of slavery has brought, his relationship with Louisa changed from one of direct dominance to one that requires sneaking around.

The contrast was repulsive to him. His family had lost ground... He was going to see Louisa to-night, and love her. She was lovely - in her way. Nigger way. What way was that? Damned if he knew. Must know. He’d known her long enough to know. Was there something about niggers that you couldn’t know? Listening to them at church didn’t tell you anything. Talking to them didn’t tell you anything – unless it was gossip, unless they wanted to talk… She was worth it. Beautiful nigger gal. Why nigger? Why not just gal? No, it was because she was nigger that he went to her.

Louisa is also loved by Tom Burwell, a black field worker known as Big Boy, who aspires to acquiring his own farm and providing Louisa was the luxuries that she now get from white folks. Louisa encourages both men’s attentions, but when Bob and Tom each independently become aware of the others involvement, Bob Stone initiates a violent fight with Tom Burwell, ending unhappily for both – Bob with his throat slit and Tom burned at the stake by a mob – while Louisa was aware only of the evil omen of the full moon.

African American Literature Week 2 Continued

Alain Locke was a Harvard-educated philosopher, cultural critic and educator. Raised in a middle-class household, he was the first African American to be awarded a Rhodes scholarship. Nonetheless, he was denied admission by five Oxford colleges, before entering Hertford, a smaller and newer college. He moved to Harlem in 1953 following his retirement and became an important participant in the Harlem Renaissance.

“The New Negro” (1925) – In this essay, Locke addresses the new issues associated with the migration of blacks to the Northern and Midwestern urban centers.

“…The problems of adjustment are new, practical, local and not peculiarly racial. Rather they are an integral part of the large industrial and social problems of our present-day democracy. And finally, with the Negro rapidly in process of class differentiation, if it was ever warrantable to regard and treat the Negro en masse it is becoming with every day less possible, more unjust and more ridiculous.

In the very process of being transplanted , the Negro is becoming transformed.

…American Negros have been a race more in name than in fact, or to be exact, more in sentiment than in experience. The chief bond between them has been that of a common condition rather than a common consciousness; a problem in common rather than a life in common.

In contrast to DuBois’ notion of the talented 10th and their responsibility as intelligentsia to lift up the masses, Locke believed in the importance of involving the masses in the movement. He focused on expressing one’s own individuality, and in doing so, communicating something that is of universal human appeal.

Arna Bontemps was born in Louisiana to Creole parents. He obtained a master’s degree in library science and worked as a teacher, librarian, and finally as a curator at Yale University. Bontemps worked as a humanitarian on behalf of people of all races and was recognized for his cultural contributions, receiving the Alexander Pushkin Poetry Prize, and both Guggenheim and Rosenwald fellowships.

“A Summer Tragedy” (1933) is his best known story, reflecting his observations of the hopeless poverty experienced by sharecroppers in Alabama. Jeff Patton and his wife Jennie are black sharecroppers who suffer from poor health. Jeff has suffered a stroke and Jennie is blind. Dressed in their best clothes, still old and moth-eaten, they set off on a drive in their old T-model Ford. They are both frightened by their plans, but see no way of continuing to farm in their physical condition.

Below, the water of the stream boomed, a soft thunder in the deep channel. Jeff ran the car onto the clay slope, pointed it directly toward the stream and put his foot heavily on the accelerator….The two old black folks, sitting quietly side by side, showed no excitement. In another instant the car hit the water and dropped immediately out of sight.
A little later it lodged in the mud of a shallow place. One wheel of the crushed and upturned little Ford became visible above the rushing water.

I am sorry to hear about your surgery, Linda, but glad that it went well and that your recovery is going well as well. Don't even try to catch up with LT! Just start from where everyone is now!

And thanks for continuing to post about your class in African-American literature. Your comments, and the stories themselves, are fascinating.

Hoping your health continues to improve sooner rather than later!

Great posts on African American Literature week 2. Love the extracts that you are posting.

Glad to see you back and I enjoyed your posts. Speedy recovery!

Love Zora Neale Hurston. I own Toomer's Cane, but I have never read it. These are terrific posts. It's is so sad what these authors had to go through.

These are really interesting, thanks for sharing :)

Hope you are continuing to heal.

I read Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God a couple of times, but nothing else by her, so I enjoyed your notes immensely. I was inspired to find “How It Feels To Be Colored Me” on the Internet. Wonderful self-assurance and humor, with her jaunty hat set just right, how could the world not want to be with her? I wonder if it was always that easy for her...

I also liked your discussion of double consciousness and social class.

Thanks everyone! I am glad you are enjoying the African-American Lit posts.

>48 dchaikin: Thank you Dan for adding the link on your Club Read Recommends experimental thread.

>50 labfs39: Lisa, I was also very impressed with Hurston's essay. She must have been an amazing woman.

I have had an inquiry regarding accessing the readings. Unfortunately the computer that I saved the files to has since died and I am left with hard copies that do not identify the anthology from which they were taken. But I have done a little looking around and can offer the following on sources for the first two sets of readings. I'll try to include sources in the upcoming summaries.

Week 1 - These works are all available for free on the U.S. Project Gutenberg site: www.gutenberg.org
Charles Chestnutt: The Wife of His Youth and Other Stories of the Color Line, The Conjure Woman
Alice Dunbar Nelson: The Goodness of St. Rocque and Other Stories
W.E.B. DuBois: The Souls of Black Folks
Paul Laurence Dunbar: The Strength of Gideon and Other Stories

I could not find a source for Pauline Hopkins' stories.

Week 2 - These works are apparently still under copyright protection, as I could not find them on Project Gutenberg.
Alain Locke: The New Negro: An Interpretation
Zora Neale Hurston: "How It Feels to be Colored Me" can be found at http://xroads.virginia.edu/~ma01/grand-jean/hurston/chapters/how.html
There are several collections of her short stories available.
Jean Toomer: "Blood-Burning Moon" is from Cane

The stories by Jessie Fauset and Arna Bontemps were originally published in magazines and I could not identify specific sources.

Thanks for sharing :)

Barabbas by Par Lagerkvist



Barabbas by Par Lagerkvist

Awarded the 1951 Nobel Prize for Literature primarily for his poetry, Par Lagerkvist was also a dramatist, essayist and novelist.

Drawing from the well-known biblical story of the crucifixion, Lagerkvist envisions the criminal, Barabbas, in the aftermath of having been acquitted and Jesus crucified in his place. Barabbas becomes obsessed with wanting to understand why a man who is called the Messiah would choose suffering and crucifixion. Why does Golgotha, the site of Jesus’s crucifixion, become suddenly dark at the moment of his death? How is it possible that a man can be resurrected from the dead, his tomb found empty? What does his message of “love one another” mean? Why do some believe that Jesus is the Son of God?

Par Lagerkvist’s Barabbas is unable to find faith in the absence of understanding. He seems generally devoid of feelings for his fellow man, and fails to intervene on behalf of a girl with a hare-lip and a fellow captive to whom he is chained for years, both devout Christians who die for their faith. In the end, Barabbas’s quest for understanding grows into a desire to believe, but remains ambiguous as to whether or not it is fulfilled.

Lagerkvist’s writing is concise and skillfully descriptive, but for the most part, Barabbas’s struggle to find faith felt fairly predictable to me, and not particularly interesting. However, my enjoyment of this short novel was considerably enhanced by the occasional insertion of the unexpected, such as the following conversation between Barabbas and a man whom Jesus has raised from the dead, surprising in its inconsistency with Christian dogma regarding the after-life.

Barabbas sat opposite to him and was drawn to examine his face. It was sallow and seemed as hard as bone. The skin was completely parched. Barabbas had never thought a face could look like that and he had never seen anything so desolate. It was like a desert.

To the young man’s question the man replied that it was quite true that he had been dead and brought back to life by the rabbi from Galilee, their Master. He had lain in the grave for four days and nights, but his physical and mental powers were the same as before, nothing had altered as far as they were concerned. And because of this the Master had proved his power and glory and that he was the son of God. He spoke slowly in a monotone, looking at Barabbas the whole time with his pale, lack-lustre eyes.

...-The realm of the dead? Barabbas exclaimed, noticing that his voice trembled slightly. The realm of the dead?...What is it like there? You who have been there! Tell me what it’s like!

-What it’s like? The man said, looking at him questioningly. He clearly didn’t quite understand what the other meant.

-Yes! What is it? This thing you have experienced?

-I have experienced nothing, the man, answered, as though disapproving of the other’s violence. I have merely been dead. And death is nothing.

-Nothing?

-No. What should it be?

Barabbas stared at him.

-Do you mean you want me to tell you something about the realm of the dead? I cannot. The realm of the dead isn’t anything. It exists, but it isn’t anything.
Barabbas could only stare at him. The desolate face frightened him, but he could not tear his eyes away from it.

-No, the man said, looking past him with his empty gaze, the realm of the dead isn’t anything. But to those who have been there, nothing else is anything either.

-It is strange your asking such a thing, he went on. Why did you? They don’t usually.

And he told him that the brethren in Jerusalem often sent people there to be converted, and indeed many had been. In that way he served the Master and repaid something of his great debt for having been restored to life. Almost every day someone was brought by this young man or one of the others and he testified to his resurrection. But of the realm of the dead he never spoke. It was the first time anyone had wanted to hear about it.

Sounds curious and thought provoking. Lagerkvist is an author I will keep in mind.

Huh. I haven't read Lagerkvist before, although I own The Sibyl. I've wanted to read him, because he is a Nobel Laureate, but his novels, at least, have not seemed that appealing.

The book of one of my favourite old films - you must have seen it Linda http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0055774/?ref_=nv_sr_1

Of course Par Lagerkvist is yet another Nobel prize winning author that I had not heard of. Excellent review.

Dan, Lisa and Barry - I'm not too interested in reading another of Lagerkvist's novels, but would like to find some of his poetry. One early collection, Ångest : Hjärtats sånger (Anguish), was written during World War I, but I don't believe it has been translated to English.

I don't recall having seen that movie, Barry. If I did, it was many years ago. I'll have to check to see whether it is available on Netflix.

I've had a copy of Barrabas for more than 35 years, and your review doesn't exactly make me want to read it. I think someone gave it to me!

Rebecca, I chose Barabbas as Lagerkvist was a Nobel Laureate I had not yet read and it was one of his few works that was readily available. It wasn't a bad book, but I wouldn't blame you if you kept it on the shelf for another 35 years.

LInda, you make me laugh! I hope I can keep it another 35 years -- I'd be a REALLY old lady then!