Review 2502: Novellas in November! Picnic at Hanging Rock

~ whatmeread ~ 19 Comments

I have meant to read Picnic at Hanging Rock for years, so when I saw it on a list of short novels, I got a copy from the library for Novellas in November. It turns out I’m stretching a point with this one, though, at 204 pages, a little over the stated limit.

Let me warn you about this one. I suggest you don’t do too much poking around or read the Introduction before reading it. Even the Introduction suggests that you read it afterwards. Part of this suggestion has to do with a chapter that was removed at the suggestion of the original publishers. The Introduction to the Penguin edition summarizes this chapter, but I agree that the novel is much more powerful without it.

On a hot Valentines Day in 1900 Australia, most of the girls of Appleyard College for Young Ladies are bound for an outing—a picnic at Hanging Rock, an ancient local geographical and anthropological wonder. With them are three teachers and the coachman. The only student left behind is Sara, a 13-year-old orphan whom Mrs. Appleyard, the headmistress, uses as a scapegoat.

Although the girls are told to stay off the rock, after tea three senior girls ask to walk closer to it. They include Miranda, a girl loved by everyone at the school but especially by Sara. With her are her best friends, Irma, a beautiful heiress, and the brainy Marion. Edith, a younger girl who they think is a pest, tags along after them.

Although a couple of young men in a family party see them crossing a stream, no one sees them after that—or at least no one sees some of them. The girls fall asleep on a circular platform, and when they wake up very late, Miranda wanders away, seeming to hear no one’s calls. Later, Edith comes running screaming away from the rock but can’t remember anything except that she saw Miss McCraw, the mathematics teacher, running away without her skirt. By then, the party has been searching for the girls and has noticed that Miss McCraw is missing, too.

The whole countryside erupts into an uproar. On a subsequent search after the official police ones, the two young men who glimpsed the girls at the rock try searching again, and Mike Fitzhubert finds one of them barely alive. He is injured running for help, but his companion and groom, Albert Crundall, rescues them both.

Most of the novel is about the aftermath of the disappearances. This is an atmospheric and mysterious, even haunting novel that holds the attention. It’s an Australian classic.

Related Posts

The Sun Walks Down

The Secret River

A Room Made of Leaves

Review 2501: Novellas in November! Young Man with a Horn

~ whatmeread ~ 6 Comments

I read Young Man with a Horn to fill a hole in my Century of Books project but, as has happened several times already, by the time I got to it, I had already read a book for that year. (I made a list of my to-read pile years to avoid this, but now I’ve lost the list!) However, at 171 pages, it qualifies for Novellas in November.

Young Man with a Horn is Baker’s debut novel and is still her best known. She seems to like to tackle complicated subjects and what were at the time fringe characters. (For example, she subtly indicates in Cassandra at the Wedding that Cassandra is gay.)

We know from the beginning that this novel is not going to have a happy ending. The anonymous narrator makes that clear in the Prologue. And about that narrator—the novel is related in a loose, conversational style, like someone might use to tell the story to a friend.

In the 1920s, Rick Martin is a 14-year-old orphan at the beginning of the novel. School isn’t working for him and he spends most of his time in the library until he finds a piano in an unlocked church and teaches himself to play, which doesn’t take long.

He decides he wants a trumpet, though, because it’s easier to carry around. His young aunt and uncle are very poor, so to buy one he needs a job. He gets one setting pins at a bowling alley. There he meets Smoke Jordan, an older Black boy who is a drummer. Eventually, they start hanging out to talk about music (after Rick gets over some racist notions). They like sitting behind a club where Smoke’s neighbor, Jeff Williams, has a band which is getting to be well known, a bunch of gifted Black men. Eventually, they are invited inside, and when Rick gets his trumpet, he convinces the trumpet player to give him lessons. It’s jazz Rick is interested in rather than the dance music the band plays in public. It becomes almost the only thing he is interested in.

The book traces his career as he becomes one of the best jazz trumpet players in the country. Baker draws a convincing portrait of an obsessed personality. It’s fairly fast-moving, and the only part I didn’t really appreciate was the blaming of his wife for the failure of their marriage.

Related Posts

Cassandra at the Wedding

Trust

Lucky Us

Nonfiction November: Week Three

~ whatmeread ~ 16 Comments

I had to think a lot about what I could do for this week, because the most self-evident answer to the prompt was too obvious. Here’s the prompt for this week:

Cover for Wolf Hall

Week 3 (11/11-11/15) Book Pairings: This week, pair up a nonfiction book with a fiction title. Maybe it’s a historical novel and the real history in a nonfiction version, or a memoir and a novel, or a fiction book you’ve read and you would like recommendations for background reading. Or (because I’m doing this myself) two books on two different areas have chimed and have a link. You can be as creative as you like! (Liz)

Cover for Bring Up the Bodies

Maybe this pairing is obvious, too, but it didn’t immediately come to mind. Here it is, though. I recently finished the history/biography Hunting the Falcon: Henry VII, Anne Boleyn and the Marriage That Shook Europe by John Guy and Julia Fox. This account begins when both figures are younger, with Henry becoming king and Anne first going to the French court. But it concentrates on the years of their relationship and marriage, including the fallout from Henry’s divorce of Katherine.

I’m actually pairing this nonfiction book with three fiction books that concentrate on the same subject matter, and they, of course, are well known. I meant Hilary Mantel’s outstanding trilogy about Thomas Cromwell. The trilogy begins with Wolf Hall, in which Cromwell helps Henry with his divorce from Katherine so he can marry Anne. It continues with Bring Up the Bodies, in which Cromwell eventually helps ruin Anne after she fails to produce a son and Henry sets his eyes on Jane Seymour. Finally, it ends in The Mirror and the Light, which begins with the beheading of Anne.

Whether you’re interested in the nonfiction or the fiction books, you’ll be entertained, but the trilogy happens in my opinion to be a set of top historical fiction books.

Review 2500: Novellas in November! Such Small Hands

~ whatmeread ~ 6 Comments

I decided to make more of an effort to participate in Novellas in November this year, more than accidentally reviewing a novella in November, that is, so I started looking at lists. When I first went for classic novellas, I was finding the same kinds of things, many of which I considered novels, not novellas, so I just tried search for novellas in general. I finally found this intriguing list on Literary Hub, the 50 Best Contemporary Novels Less Than 200 Pages. I picked out a few books from it, most of which I was unfamiliar with.

The quotes on the back of this very short book (101 pages) use words like “chilling” and “terrifying.” I was nearly halfway through it feeling that it was a little strange but certainly not terrifying. So, I did a little looking around, as I sometimes do when I feel like I’m not quite with it. That led me to find out something I wish I didn’t know ahead of time. So, don’t do this! If you choose to read the novel, you’ll find it out in the Afterword.

Marina’s parents died after a car accident. She herself was badly injured and hospitalized for some time. At seven years old with no relatives, she is placed in an orphanage. The other girls, whose point of view is represented as a group, love and are repelled by her, so they make her an outcast. And there is something odd about her. When anyone asks her about her family, she uses the same words, with no affect.

Marina’s only possession besides an odd selection of clothes from her house is a doll the psychologist gave her. Marina, rejected, plays constantly with the doll. Eventually, the other girls steal, destroy, and bury it.

These descriptions sound a little odd, but what is very unusual is the way the unspoken thoughts of the children are expressed in the text. It’s lyrical, and as I mentioned before, the other girls are treated as one. References in reviews speak of a Greek chorus, but to me it seemed stranger than that.

I’m not going to say more about this except that the events and aura of the novel become stranger as it goes on. If you are interested, you most likely won’t be disappointed. And what the heck! It’s only 100 pages long. Read it!

Related Posts

We Have Always Lived in the Castle

The Bloody Chamber

The Wicked Boy

Review 2499: Novellas in November! Highland Fling

~ whatmeread ~ 11 Comments

I read Highland Fling to fill a hole in my Century of Books project but found it also qualifies for Novellas in November!

The novel begins with Albert Gates, who almost on a whim, moves to Paris to become a painter. There, he at least seems serious about it and actually arranges a showing at a gallery in London before returning home to arrange his show.

Now the point of view shifts to that of Jane Dacre. She has been spending time with her married friends, Walter and Sally Monteath, who are having difficulty living on their incomes, Walter, a poet, apparently being unable to hold a job. The Monteaths are asked to travel to Scotland to host a house party at Dulloch Castle, Lord and Lady Craigdulloch having been called out of the country. They are not excited about it but agree thinking it will be a good way to save money. They invite Jane and Albert.

The rest is a no-holds-barred satire of country house parties, sporting people, Scottish customs, and surprisingly, the young people themselves. In Scotland, Albert comes off as an intellectual snob, his remarks rude and his likings absurd, his outfits unsuitable and ridiculous. (He reminded me of an obnoxious artist character in Angela Thirkell’s series, but try as I might, I cannot figure out which book he appears in. If anyone knows who I’m talking about, please tell me.)

Nevertheless, Jane falls in love with him and everything he says is wonderful. This plot point may be explained because Mitford herself fell in love with a young man on a similar Scottish visit, and they eventually split, possibly because he was gay.

This novel seemed a lot less polished than Mitford’s later ones, but it is her first. The caricatures are very broad, and the supposedly bright banter seemed puerile. However, there are some funny moments here, the description of Albert’s art being one of them.

Related Posts

The Pursuit of Love

Love in a Cold Climate

Pigeon Pie

Nonfiction November: Week Two

~ whatmeread ~ 9 Comments

Here’s the prompt for Week Two of Nonfiction November:

Week 2 (11/4-11/8) Choosing Nonfiction: What are you looking for when you pick up a nonfiction book? Do you have a particular topic you’re attracted to? Do you have a particular writing style that works best? When you look at a nonfiction book, does the title or cover influence you? If so, share a title or cover which you find striking. (Frances)

What are you looking for when you pick up a nonfiction book? Do you have a particular topic you’re attracted to?

As far as the overall categories are concerned, I tend to gravitate toward history and biography, with a distinct slant toward reading about literary figures. However, there are certain periods of history that appeal to me (the Wars of the Roses and the Tudors, for example), and there are certain authors that I trend toward, usually buying any books that I come across. Here are some of those authors:

  • Bill Bryson
  • Doris Kearns Goodwin
  • David Grann
  • Erik Larson
  • Kate Summerscale
  • Claire Tomalin
  • Lucy Worsley

As you can see, several of these names are historians and biographers. I also like reading about art and true crime.

Do you have a particular writing style that works best?

Where writing style is concerned, I obviously want the book to be well written. In nonfiction, writing can get pretty academic and stuffy. If I’m not reading a book for a particular research goal, then I prefer the style to be more informal, maybe even with a touch of humor. However, Goodwin uses a more formal style, but it is eminently readable and not stodgy.

When you look at a nonfiction book, does the title or cover influence you? If so, share a title or cover which you find striking.

Yes, of course, the covers influence me to buy books. I’m not going to pretend otherwise. However, I’m more influenced by the author than the cover, usually. Titles not so much in nonfiction, because they are often stodgy or ruined by those stupid subtitles they all seem to have now. I think the cover that I liked best from my reading of the last year was the one for The Salt Path (note no subtitle).

Review 2498: Novellas in November! Envy

~ whatmeread ~ 6 Comments

It wasn’t until I was getting ready to post this review that I realized that at 152 pages it qualifies for Novellas in November!

I read Envy right after Dostoevsky’s The Gambler, and perhaps that was too much for me. The two short Russian novels have a lot in common even though they were written more than 60 years apart. They both feature young male narrators in a frenzy and easily offended. They both have long philosophical speeches that doesn’t seem to mean much. Olesha leans more into Absurdism, but Dostoevsky can be pretty absurdist himself.

Andrei Petrovich Babichev is a model Soviet citizen, a trust director in charge of food. He has literally picked our narrator, Nikolai Kavalerov, up from the gutter and given him a bed on his sofa. Andrei Petrovich is fat and self-satisfied, true, but Nikolai hates everything about him.

Then he meets Andrei’s brother, Ivan, a sort of buffoon who makes up ridiculous stories and also hates Andrei.

Andrei’s claim to fame is a huge communal dining hall he’s building, where food is supposed to be good and cheap. He has also produced a good, inexpensive sausage that he’s proud of. Olesha is clearly making fun of these accomplishments, and I don’t know how he got away with it in 1927 Soviet Union.

There is lots of talk about the New Man that Communism is going to produce but no sign of one. (Coincidentally, I am reading The Possessed by Dostoevsky right now, and there’s lots of talk about the New Man in it, too; only apparently he’s supposed to be produced by Nihilism.)

Thanks to the publisher for sending me this book in exchange for a free and fair review.

Related Posts

Life and Fate

The Gambler

Memories: From Moscow to the Black Sea

WWW Wednesday!

~ whatmeread ~ 2 Comments

It’s my week for WWW Wednesday, where I answer three questions about my reading, and you can, too, if you like!

  • What did I just finish reading?
  • What am I reading now?
  • What will I read next?

I stole this idea from The Chocolate Lady, and it seems to be popular. If you would like, please let me know about your own reading life!

What did I just finish reading?

I have been reading for several projects lately, although my intention was to read as many books as possible for my A Century of Books project before the end of the year. The book I read last was supposed to fill a hole in this project, but alas, once I had read it, I realized that I had already filled that particular hole. I thought that by making a list of the holes I had left and marking them off as I bought or reserved books at the library, I would avoid that, and I have so far. Until now. Anyway, this book was Beauvallet, one of Georgette Heyer’s early novels, and it is a swashbuckler rather than a Regency romance. It was supposed to fill the hole for 1929, but I read The Islander a week or so ago, and that filled it first. It’s possible that this book appeared in a list for the wrong year on Goodreads. I’ve seen them make that mistake before.

What am I reading now?

The book I am reading now is The Stone Angel by Margaret Laurence, and it will indeed fill a hole in my Century of Books project. I thought I had read something by her before, but it turns out I have not. So far, it’s an interesting novel about the life in small-town Canada of a very old woman and about the perils of getting old. Although I am not as decrepit as this 90-year-old woman, it’s ringing some bells, let me tell you. Let’s hear it for filling the hole for 1964!

What will I read next?

I generally read well ahead of my posts unless I decide to insert reviews for a special occasion that I hadn’t planned (as I will be doing this month, getting ready for Dean Street in December). After I finish a book, I write up a rough review in a notebook, and then I prepare my posts about a month ahead. Why am I telling you this? Because I have already passed the point in my prepared posts for my Literary Wives review of Euphoria by Elin Cullhed. Got to get going on that! After that will come a couple of books for Dean Street, so I won’t be back on my Century of Books project for a few books.

Take a moment and let me know what you have been reading or plan to read!

Review 2497: Novellas in November! School for Love

~ whatmeread ~ 7 Comments

This year, I thought I’d try to pop some novellas into my October reading so that I could participate in Novellas in November, hosted by Bookish Beck and Cathy of 746 Books. I actually read School for Love for my Century of Books project, but was delighted to see that at 191 pages, it qualified for this one, too.

Felix Latimer arrives during a snowstorm in Jerusalem from Baghdad. He is newly orphaned, his father having been killed during the war (WW II) and his mother having recently died from typhoid. So, he is being taken in by a family connection, a woman named Miss Bohun who runs a boarding house, until he can get on a boat to England. The war is winding down, but at this point places are reserved for soldiers and government personnel.

Felix is in his mid-teens, but for a long time I took him for much younger. He has been taught by his mother to look for the good side of people, and he is disposed to be grateful to Miss Bohun, but readers see her another way right from the beginning. Although she runs a fringe religious organization and talks about good works, early on she sits down with Felix to figure his share of expenses and while adding up her household expenses, includes some things twice, then remarks that they should divide the costs in half even though she has another boarder (although admittedly, he is very poor and we don’t know how much he pays). Even so, his half of £36 mysteriously ends up at £21, leaving him pocket money of only a few pounds a month. (Later, she tries to raise the rent to take the full amount.) She also feeds the boarders poor and scant food.

At first, Miss Bohun confides in him and he is confusedly willing to take her part in her concerns. Although we learn that she has stolen Frau Leszno’s house and furnishings from her by putting the house into her own name to “protect” it, and actually uses Frau Leszno as a servant, Felix is ready to take Miss Bohun’s part because Frau Leszno seems so unpleasant. He likes Mr. Jewel, the other tenant who lives in the attic, but he still takes Miss Bohun’s part when she tells him he has to leave the next day, even though he has nowhere to go. (He ends up in the hospital.)

Miss Bohun is scheming, we find, to oust Mr. Jewel and move up into his attic herself so that she can rent her room to Mrs. Ellis, a young widow. Once Mrs. Ellis appears, Felix is smitten, and he begins to see the other side of Miss Bohun after taking in Mrs. Ellis’s sarcastic remarks. We eventually learn that Miss Bohun has promised Mrs. Ellis the whole house in the fall, a promise she has no intention of keeping. In fact, we realize all along that she has been trying to replace her tenants with more wealthy or prestigious ones, with the idea of getting more rent.

Although there is some action, most of the novel is concerned with the interactions among these characters and a few more. Felix begins to wake up to some realities.

The portrayal of Miss Bohun is a masterly one as we note her constant hypocrisies. As for love, although Felix begins with a crush on young Mrs. Ellis, it’s only really between Felix and a little cat, Faro.

Related Posts

The Great Fortune

The Spoilt City

Friends and Heroes