Completed: First Quarter
“Master
and Man,” a short story by Leo Tolstoy.
Interior
Castle, a non-fiction book on spirituality by St. Teresa of Avila.
“A
Cup of Cold Water,” a short story by Edith Wharton.
Feline
Catastrophes, a collection of humorous anecdotes by
Victor S. E. Moubarak.
“In
the Garden of the North American Martyrs,” a short story by Tobias Wolff.
To
Kill a Mockingbird, a novel by Harper Lee.
Prayer
for Beginners, a non-fiction book of devotion by Peter Kreeft.
“Saint
Dymphna,” a short story by Mary O’Connell.
Completed
2nd Quarter:
“A House of Gentlefolks,” a short
story by Evelyn Waugh.
The
Noonday Devil: Acedia, the Unnamed Evil of Our Times,
a non-fiction book by Jean-Charles Nault, O.S.B.
White
Fang,
a novella by Jack London.
The
Book of Psalms, (Psalms 51-100) KJV and Ignatius
RSV Translations.
“Hallelujah,
Family,” a short story by Ludmilla Petrushevkaya, translated by Anna Summers.
“Wingstroke,:
a short story by Vladimir Nabokov.
“A
House of Gentlefolks,” a short story by Evelyn Waugh.
“Miles
City, Montana,” a short story by Alice Munro.
“The
Cabuliwallah,” a short story by Rabindranath Tagore.
“1933,”
a short story by Mavis Gallant.
“The
Man Born Blind,” a short story by C. S. Lewis.
“After
the Storm,” a short story by Earnest Hemingway.
Completed
3rd Quarter:
Saint Dominic, a biography by Sr. Mary Jean Dorcy, O.P.
“Clair
de Lune,” a short story by Guy de Maupassant.
“The
Crucifix across the Mountains,” a personal essay by D. H. Lawrence.
“The
Woman In White: Emily Dickinson and Friends,” an essay by Joyce Carol Oats.
“The
State of Grace,” a short story by Harold Brodkey.
The
Book of Psalms, (Psalms 101-150) KJV and Ignatius
RSV Translations.
Learning the
Virtues That Lead You to God, a non-fiction book of Christian devotion by Romano
Guardini.
Completed
4th Quarter:
First
Letter to the Corinthians, an epistle from the New
Testament by St. Paul the Apostle in both the KJV and Ignatius RSV
translations.
Silence, a novel by Shūsaku Endō.
“Unzen,” a short story by Shūsaku
Endō.
“The Stampeding of Lady Bastable,” a
short story by Saki (H. H. Munro).
“The Jesting of Arlington
Stringham,” a short story by Saki (H. H. Munro).
Second Letter to the Corinthians, an epistle from the New Testament
by St. Paul the Apostle in both the KJV and Ignatius RSV translations.
Buddenbrooks: The Decline of a
Family, a novel by
Thomas Mann.
“The Demilitarized Zone,” a short
story by Anthony Doerr.
“The Flying Stars,” a Father Brown
mystery short story by G. K. Chesterton.
“The Red-Headed League,” a Sherlock Holmes
short story by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.
“In a Grove,” a short story by Ryūnosuke
Akutagawa.
“Clay,” a short story by James
Joyce.
Two Gentlemen from Verona, a play by William Shakespeare.
Artful Sentences: Syntax as Style, a non-fiction book on writing by Virginia Tufte.
Unfinished Reading:
Julius Caesar: Life of a Colossus, a biography by Adrian Goldsworthy.
Some Desperate Glory: The First
World War the Poets Knew, a book of
history and collected poetry by Max Egremont.
I’m late on summarizing last year’s
reads. Really late. On balance I would say this was again not a
great year for reading, perhaps just short of average. But more importantly I was distracted from my
plans. I don’t think I read half of what
I planned to read at the beginning of the year.
Two reasons I think. First the
Thomas Mann novel Buddenbrooks taken
up in May but not completed until the end of summer was so long that I did not
plan accordingly and once I fell behind it destroyed the pace and plan I
envisioned. Second belonging to
Goodreads book clubs forces one to accommodate the poll winner for the reading
selection, I don’t get to decide all the
time. Before I summarize, if you wish to
read my beginning-of-the-year plans and the quarterly updates for 2016 you can
find them here:
As you break down my reads you will
find twelve full length works, six books of non-fiction, five books of fiction,
and one play, maintaining the one book per month goal I set out every year. The fact that there were more works of
non-fiction than fiction is not typical of my reading patterns, but I think
this may have been a function of being part of a Catholic Book Club on
Goodreads, where the book selections tend to be Catholic devotional works or
about Catholic theology. There were four
such books on the list: St. Teresa of Avila’s Interior Castle, Peter Kreeft’s Prayer
for Beginners, Jean-Charles Nault’s The
Noonday Devil, and Romano Guardini’s Learning
the Virtues that Lead You to God. I
have to say I thought the Kreeft book and the Guardini book were so-so. I didn’t dislike them, but I didn’t think
they were that insightful. Interior Castle is a great classic and
well worth the read, and Nault’s book on acedia—a complicated emotional state
of boredom, sloth, and inertia—is fascinating and perceptive. Nault makes the case that acedia is
what drives people to lose devotion and perseverance, both in religious life
and even every day activity, and Nault points out is particularly problematic
in today’s hyper distracting world. It’s
a rather heavy read, but interesting.
Another non-fiction work, also with
a Catholic subject was the biography of St. Dominic de Guzmán by Sr. Mary Jean
Dorcy. This read was not associated with
the book club but was something I did to honor the 800th anniversary
of the founding of the Order of Preachers.
And the last non-fiction book I read was my annual read on the art of
writing, this year being Virginia Tufte’s Artful
Sentences: Syntax as Style. Tufte’s
book is a magnificent work. It goes
through every possible sentence structure and their rhetorical
implications. I meant to post some of
the grammatical points here, but unfortunately I haven’t been so consistent in
my blogging. Perhaps on occasion I still
will post something from this wonderful book.
The four full length fiction works
were all outstanding and all four classics.
Harper Lee’s To Kill A Mockingbird
from mid-20th century American South dealt with issues of racism
through the eyes of a young girl. Jack
London’s White Fang is an early 20th
century American novel from the point of view of a wolf-dog as he goes from
wild to domesticate. Shūsaku Endō’s Silence is a 20th century
Japanese historical novel set in the 16th century of Catholic
persecution. And Thomas Mann’s Buddenbrooks is an early 20th
century German epic set in the 19th century of a family’s
decline. I immensely enjoyed all four novels. The fifth fiction work, Feline Catastrophes, is Victor Moubarak’s humorous collection of
anecdotes—somewhere between short stories and jokes—centered on the house cat
and the trouble he causes. Victor you
may realize is a frequent reader of this blog.
As with his many other publications, Feline
Catastrophes, was a fun read.
The one play I read was one of
Shakespeare’s early comedies, Two
Gentlemen from Verona. While the
plotting seemed a little awkward and the character’s conversions too
convenient, the play was still enjoyable and worthwhile, least of all for
Shakespeare’ language. It was a play obviously where he was learning
his craft, but his poetry had already developed into the Bard that he would
be. This play checks off another of the
ones I’ve read from the Shakespeare opus.
That makes 28 plays read of Shakespeare’ 37 officially credited plays. I’m getting there.
I also made headway on my track
through the Bible. From the Old
Testament I read Psalms 50 through 150 both in the KJV an Ignatius RSV
translations, and from the New Testament I read First and Second of Paul’s
Letters to the Corinthians, also in both translations. That puts me about half way on the Old
Testament and significantly through the New.
I completed 22 short stories but if
you add the two essays I’ve
listed, which are about short story length, I read 24 short works this
year. That’s spot on the two per month I
set as a goal. I guess that’s not too
bad. Both essays were well worth
reading, but Lawrence’s “The Crucifix Across the Mountains” is exceptional, a
classic. Not only was D. H. Lawrence a
great novelist, great short story writer, and great poet, but he was a fine
essayist as well. “The Crucifix Across
the Mountains” starts out as a travel essay where the author traverses across
the Alps from Germany to Italy. But near
Innsbruck the author comes across a series of crucifixes, and as he goes from
mountain to mountain he encounters more crucifixes. The essay is a contemplation of art, Christ,
and death.
This year I’ll rate the short
stories as either exceptional, good, ordinary, or duds. Of the duds there were two: “The Man Born
Blind” by C. S. Lewis and “The State of Grace” by Harold Brodkey. Lewis’s story was a posthumously published
work and I suspect it was never refined, if it ever meant to be published. It felt more like a sketch than a complete
story. Brodkey’s story was boring and
depressing and was supposed to have all sorts of Freudian significance, which
in today’s age is meaningless. Six
stories I considered ordinary: “Saint Dymphna” by Mary O’Connell, “Clare de
Lune” by Guy de Maupassant, “The Jesting of Arlington Stringham” by Saki, “The
Flying Stars” by G. K. Chesterton, “The Demilitarized Zone” by Anthony Doerr,
and “Clay” by James Joyce. The one
surprise to some in those six I think would be Joyce’s “Clay.” It’s about a spinster who going on a visit to
the family of a man who she nursed when he was a child, forgets the cake she
bought for the occasion on the train ride because she became flustered when a
drunken man flirted with her. It was
well written but the lack of sympathy the author displays for the woman made it
feel harsh and pitiless, and the theme wasn’t exactly profound. I’m probably not with the majority, but I don’t
find James Joyce that great a short story writer.
Nine stories I’d rate in the good
category: Tobias Wolff’s “In the Garden
of the North American Martyrs,” Ludmilla Petrushevkaya’s “Hallelujah, Family,” Vladimir
Nabokov’s “Wingstroke,” Evelyn Waugh’s “A House of Gentlefolks,” Alice Munro’s “Miles
City, Montana,” Rabindranath Tagore’s “The Cabuliwallah,” Mavis Gallant’s “1933,”
Shūsaku Endō’s “Unzen,” Saki’s “The Stampeding of Lady Bastable,” I could
probably distinguish a couple of those in a very good category (Gallant’s and Petrushevkaya’s
) since I had a hard time deciding if they were exceptional. What’s notable about this group is just how
international the group of writers are.
Four stories I’d rate in the
exceptional category: Leo Tolstoy’s “Master and Man,” Edith Wharton’s “A Cup of
Cold Water,” Earnest Hemingway’s “After the Storm,” and Ryūnosuke Akutagawa’s
“In a Grove.” “Master and Man” is a story of rich landlord and a peasant caught
in a blizzard; “A Cup of Cold Water” is about a poor, young man in love with a
rich lady but uses his last pocket money to save another lady. “After the Storm” is about a scavenger who
finds a sunken vessel after a hurricane and tries to steal the valuables. “In a Grove” is a series of testimonies to
the police about a murder, each account varying and telling us something about
the witness. When you add up the
accounts you get to the heart of the murder.
As I do every year, I give a prize
to the best short story read in that year.
First the honorable mention and runner up is…drum roll please… Ryūnosuke Akutagawa’s “In a Grove.” Akutagawa is early 20th century
Japanese writer known as the "Father of the Japanese short story.” I had never read any of his stories, but was
totally impressed with “In a Grove.” The
sequencing of accounts, varying and conflicting with each other, creates a
complex situation where truth is distorted through perception. Finally, the winner is…more drum
roll…Tolstoy’s “Master and Man.” This
was an incredible story about a selfish landlord who faced with death of the
peasant under him freezing to death saves him by using his body warmth. While doing he has a mystical experience of
meeting Christ, but while keeping the peasant warm he is exposed and dies. The landlord maybe master over the peasant,
but the Lord is master over him. You can
find both those stories on line if you want to read them.
