Hey Jude, Don't Be So Obscure!

William Shakespeare: Cymbeline

2011-05-26T22:19:00.001-07:00

It took Charlotte's post over at Inklings about independent bookstores and her thoughts on eReader sales to remind me that I haven't reviewed Shakespeare's Cymbeline yet, though I finished it over a month ago.

First, the eBook connection. For the most part I prefer reading real books. But when I'm traveling I'd rather go with a bunch loaded up on my Reader. (Though the first time I heard the flight attendant say "Can you please turn of your book? We're getting ready to descend?" I found it a little jarring.) Also, when my hard copy of The Complete Works of William Shakespeare weighs and takes up as much space as a couple of bricks, it's much easier to read it on the eReader. Though a word of advice to publishers, if it's in the public domain why not offer it as a free download? You might lose a small profit by having to pay someone to format it, but you don't have to pay an author. Give that away for free and you'll entice people like me to your site, I'll get that one and probably buy another book or two while I'm there, meaning you'll make money in the long run. My entire eVersion of the Complete Works of Sheakespeare by project Gutenberg is free. At the Sony eReader store they have a copy of the complete works for $7.99. Not bad, but why pay at all when I can get it for free? It's not it comes in a fine leather bound edition that'll look all fancy on my book shelf. It gets even worse when you buy the separate plays-- averaging about $4 each, or $148 dollars for the complete set. Again, it's not like a real book where you don't want the entire volume cramping your hand when you just want to read the Tempest. With the eVersion of the Complete Works doesn't make your eReader any heavier than a single play, and again, it's free. What idiots would pay for electronic Shakespeare books? What idiots would expect you to?

Rant over.

Anyway, Cymbeline isn't one of Shakespeare's better known plays but I can't see any reason for that. For fans of Shakespeare, it's a very Shakespearean play. Love, betrayal, jealousy, disguises, royalty, a thirst for power. You know, the typical stuff. Based on legends of Celtic British royalty, it's a tough plot to summarize. For now, the Wikipedia synopsis will suffice. (It also helped me keep everyone straight.) One small annoyance: when Cymbeline's daughter runs away, disguises herself in drag and comes across her step-brothers, also in exile, and neither knows the other. We, the audience, are quite aware of the set-up and the scene could be rife with humour, awkwardness, anything. Unfortunately the situation is milked for all it's worth and comes across as silly and phony more than anything else. They bond right away and refer to one another as brothers, men, and so on. It should work, but it's run into the ground.

But it's Shakespeare and at his worst, he's still entertaining. And Cymbeline is not is his worst. The fidelity bet alone is worth the price of admission. It's a soap opera moment, yes, but when it's surrounded by Shakespearean wit, that kind of stuff is not only tolerated, it's welcomed.

Mordecai Richler: The Incomparable Atuk

2011-05-13T17:32:00.001-07:00

I'd be hard pressed to name a Canadian author I look forward to reading more than Mordecai Richler. I guess it wouldn't be difficult to just read them all through one after the other, but I want to pace myself with him, just so I know there's more left to read.

The Incomparable Atuk is, like most Richler loves, a satirical comedy, mostly humorous but with ample doses of cynicism thrown in for good measure.

Summarizing The Incomparable Atuk is not as easy task. To say it's about an Inuk who finds himself the toast of the town in Toronto as the poet du jour is to skim over all the intricate plot details, ignore all those other eccentric characters, and miss those poisonous satirical barbs.

And yet it took me almost up to the halfway point to appreciate all the other stuff. Too many characters to keep track of, confused at what was going on, and what was Richler's beef anyway? Canadian celebrity? Canadian identity?

No, I don't think The Incomparable Atuk is as streamlined as Barney's Version, but certainly the seeds for that magnum opus were there. Here's one of my favourite moments when Atuk is speaking to his father who insists on being called "Old One" since being featured in a National Film Board short,

'Speak no more. Atuk, my son, I remember when your eyes were deep and true as the blue spring sea. I recall when your soul was pure and white as the noon iceberg. This is no more. Today--'

'For Christ's sake, will you cut out that crazy talk. You sound like you were auditioning for Disney again or something.'

And the proof that it's a brilliant piece of satire? Despite some of the dated language, most of the themes are still applicable to Canadian society today. At the end of my version, notes from Peter Gzowski reveal who many of the characters were supposedly based on. I knew none of the them (as the book was first published in '63), and yet I could still find similarities with modern day Canadians. Here's a scene involving a female newspaper columnist named Jean-Paul McEwen. She's stumped for an idea:

She could do a column on how glad she is to be a Canadian and out of the U.S. style rat-race. Naw. Old hat. McEwen felt wretched because she was not a woman to waste time. A quarrel with her mother ended up as a thought-piece on parenthood and the letters she got about the column made for a humorous minutorial on Letters I Get. Everywhere Jean-Paul McEwen went she took her tape recorder. You never knew who might say something useful or where you might come up with a honey of an idea. Even McEwen's vacations were not a costly waste. The funny things that happened to her were worth at least three columns.

If only she whined about the decreasing quality of shopping in Toronto or men who wear sandals instead of flip flops, she'd be Leah McLaren.

We really need another Richler. (Megan, write a book already.)

William Shakespeare- Troilus and Cressida

2010-05-06T22:44:00.000-07:00

While Troilus and Cressida is certainly not one of Shakespeare's better known plays, I learned a while ago not to presume that means it's not one of his best. I loved, for instance, the relatively obscure Coriolanus, but I'm not a big fan of the wildly popular King Lear.

Unfortunately, Troilus and Cressida is no Coriolanus.

The title characters are involved in a rather rushed and unimpressive love story while most of the play involves the other Trojans and the Greeks who, instead of an all out war, put all their energies into getting a couple of their guys to fight one another.

If it weren't for the quips and repartee that he does so well, it would have appeared Shakespeare didn't really care about this play. There are no standout characters, the plots struggle to find a foothold, but at least there are witty put downs. Shakespeare never fails at those.

But is that it? Did I miss something? Scouring the Internet for some insight, I came across an essay by Joyce Carol Oates, who would clearly say that yes, I missed something. According to her, I, as a modern reader, should consider this "a contemporary document-- [with] its investigation of numerous infidelities, its criticism of tragic pretensions, [and] above all, its implicit debate between what is essential in human life and what is only existential." Uh. Sure. Or maybe Oates isn't ready to admit that Shakespeare wasn't infallible.

Katherine Paterson- The Master Puppeteer

2010-05-05T22:50:00.000-07:00

(Though it did win awards when written in 1976, I think The Master Puppeteer is mostly overlooked nowadays. Paterson is better known for Bridge to Terabithia and Jacob Have I Loved.)

This is one of those rare cases where I take full responsibility for not having enjoyed a novel. While the writing was, I suppose, fine, there were a couple reasons I didn't appreciate it as well as I should have:

1. Poorly chosen as a read aloud to my daughter. Earlier this year I'd mistakenly followed the advice of my wife Debbie who suggested not to read Paterson's Bridge to Terabithia to our 6 year old. She didn't remember much about it except that she believed it may have been "dark" and that it's usually read in grade 5 or 6 classrooms. I went ahead and read it by myself but afterward I wished I had shared it with my daughter. It was somewhat on the slow side, but she's not usually put off by that, the story was pretty straightforward, and while there was a tragedy, it was nothing she couldn't have handled emotionally. Trying to make up for this past decision, I thought that reading her another Katherine Paterson book was in order. The fact that this one was set in Japan was just perfect. Since we were going there in a week or so, more exposure to the culture would be a perfect way to learn about where we were headed and would only help build our excitement. (That Paterson is not Japanese never bothered me or made me question its authenticity, as she did live there for some time and has written other books about the country.) But, it turned out that the Master Puppeteer was probably too advanced for a 6 year old. Not only was it darker than Bridge to Terabithia (while very loosely described as a Japanese version of Robin Hood, there's a lot of violence including maiming and murder) but it also has a more intricate plot and vocabulary that went way over her head. While she didn't want me to quit reading altogether, I could tell she'd lost interest or missed half of what was going on.

2. Poor timing. As I said before, we began this book about a week before heading off to Japan. At only a chapter per night, we'd hardly made a dent in the book by the time the big trip came. While the 10.5 hour flight from Vancouver to Tokyo sounds like a long time and a perfect chance to catch up with reading, we did little on the way there. For one, the novelty of "inflight entertainment" was too much for the kids and the AstroBoy movie was tough competition. Then there were the meals, and of course, sleep. While we were in Japan itself, most days were spent sight-seeing so by the time we got back to the hotels we were either too tired to read or our minds were still racing from all the excitement we'd had that day. The attention paid to the Master Puppeteer was minimal. While we did get to Osaka, where the Master Puppeteer was set, we didn't get to see any banraku (Japanese puppet theater) which probably would have directed our interest back into Paterson's book.

I won't say that the Master Puppeteer was boring, but it wasn't able to hold the attention of a 6 year old girl and her father while vacationing half way across the globe. But I doubt Katherine Paterson had that in mind.

William Shakespeare- Timon of Athens

2009-04-04T20:14:00.000-07:00

This is the first Shakespearean play I've read since coming back from seeing his birthplace, the Globe reproduction and his grave. I was wondering how those experiences would affect my reading and while it did provide a little more perspective, I don't think it affected my enjoyment one way or the other.

During the tour of his birthplace, our tour guide briefly mentioned how William's father John had gone bankrupt. In the play, Timon also goes bankrupt. I wondered if Timon shared any personality traits with the bard's father.

Timon basically doesn't know how to hang onto his cash. Surrounded by flatterers and false friends, he ends up giving away everything he has. When his creditors come calling, Timon sends out requests to all those he's helped in the past but, to his bitter surprise, none return the favour. He goes from being a wealthy philanthropic lord to a bankrupt misanthropist, running away from his debts and reviled society to live in a cave. However, at the cave Timon discovers gold. Will he hold onto his wealth this time?

Not at all. Timon gives it all away once again. However, this time it's out of hatred, not love. He hands it out to whores to spread disease, to a banished military captain who plans vengeance on Athens, and the rest to an artist, a poet, and a little left over to some senators who come to visit.
Apparently he's as disillusioned with money as he is humanity.

My first feeling toward Timon was that he was an idiot. One of my faults with the play was the lack of explanation of how a man this stupid and careless with money would have had any to begin with. He has extraordinary luck to happen upon the stash of gold, then blows his one chance to get back on his feet. Unforgivable?

Maybe. Maybe not. The cynical side of me thinks that his disillusionment, especially with money, might have led to the wisest decision of all: getting rid of it. Wishing venereal disease on his fellow countrymen? Well, I don't condone that.

It's a more obscure play but I quite enjoyed it.

(Cross-referenced at the Shakespeare Reading Challenge and The Book Mine Set.)

2008-12-10T21:07:00.001-08:00

#96
Title: The Autobiography of Upton Sinclair
Genre: Biography
Challenges: 100+, 101 Books in 1001 days, Book a Week, Fall into Reading, Obscure, Book Around the States
Rating: B
No. of pages: 350
Published: 1963
Date read: 9/26/08 - 12/8/08

This book may be obscure and the person writing it may have faded a bit from the scene yet his works live on and the impression he has made on the world is indelible. From The Jungle which dealt with the meat-packing operation of the early 1900s to Flivver King about the car industry of the 1930s, Upton Sinclair has become involved with and advised presidents and industry of the atrocities of our times. A prolific writer, Mr. Sinclair thoroughly researched his subjects whether it was politics, art, economics or society.

His accomplishments are endless. Among them are:

1. Through his research and book The Jungle he helped to clean up the meat industry. He met with President Theodore Roosevelt and reported the results of the investigations which followed. Laws were passed and enforced and affected the way meat comes to our tables.
2. In writing The Brass Check he helped bring about improvement in the newspaper industry, encouraging newspapermen to form a union thereby improving the quality of newspapers.
3. Together with his wife they were instrumental in helping promote an interest in the investigation of psychic phenomena which led to the establishment of the department of parapsychology at Duke University.
4. An end to the oppression of labor in California came about as a result of his skills in helping to organize the American Civil Liberties Union in New York and southern California.
5. He campaigned to end poverty in California (EPIC) which changed the whole reactionary tone of the state.
6. As a result of the effect he had on communism in Japan, students turned away from their communist leadership and chose the democratic process and friendship of America.
7. He began the Intercollegiate Socialist Society, now (as of 1963) the League of Industrial Democracy which had students educating the educators.

Besides his autobiography the only other books of his I’ve read are The Jungle and Dragon’s Teeth, the latter of which won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1943. Sinclair’s writing is straight forward and easy to read. And I can say unequivocally that anything he’s written is worth reading.

The Red House Mystery by A.A. Milne

2008-08-08T09:38:00.000-07:00

I thought John's idea of reading obscure books by wellknown authors was a fantastic one, even more so when my hunt for a suitable work turned up a detective story by the writer of Winnie-the-Pooh. The introduction to my edition tells me that this is the only crime novel Milne wrote, suggesting he fancied trying out the genre and, having cracked it, turned his thoughts elsewhere.

This is a classic country house murder, with houseparty assembled, garrulous servants and a murder behind a locked door. At breakfast the owner of the house, Mark Ablett, patron of the arts, announces the arrival that day of his brother from Australia, a ne'er do well who left for the colonies many years previously. Sending his guests off to play golf, he awaits his brother's arrival; shortly afterwards, the silence of a sultry summer's afternoon is broken by a gunshot, and Mark's cousin Cayley can be heard hammering on the locked door demanding that it should be opened.

Into this scenes strolls Anthony Gillingham, "an attractive gentleman" and friend of Bill Beverley, one of the guests at the Red House. Gillingham is something of a paradox, a hardworking dilettante, rich enough to please himself, he has moved from job to job, applying his intelligence to whatever takes his fancy and gaining experience in the ways of the world. When he and Cayley discover the body of Mark's brother they also find that there is no sign of Mark himself – he has disappeared apparently without trace. Anthony and his friend Bill – an eager young man – set to with the intention of solving the mystery, Anthony explaining that, if they are to do the job properly, Bill must fulfill the proper role:

"Are you prepared to be the complete Watson?" he asked. "Watson?" [Bill] asked. "Do-you-follow-me-Watson; that one. Are you prepared to have quite obvious things explained to you, to ask futile questions, to give me chances of scoring off you, to make brilliant discoveries of your own two or three days after I have made them myself – all that kind of thing? Because it all helps." "My dear Tony," said Bill delightedly, "need you ask?" Antony said nothing and Bill went on happily to himself, "I perceive from the strawberry-mark on your shirt-front that you had strawberries for dessert. Holmes, you astonish me. Tut, tut, you know my methods. Where is the tobacco? The tobacco is in the Persian slipper. Can I leave my practice for a week? I can."

Now, if you don't like this sort of exchange, then The Red House Mystery is not for you. If Margery Allingham, Michael Innes or Dorothy Sayers are meat and drink to you, then you will love it for the little gem it is. As it says in the Introduction, it's as if Christopher Robin had grown up and become a detective. And Pooh has come along to help. I, of course, am desolated that Milne didn't start a series, as Tony and Bill could comfortably have taken their place alongside Lord Peter and Albert Campion.

Although The Red House Mystery is a little obscure it is by no means unobtainable. There is a nice edition by Dover Publications and it is soon to be reissued by Vintage Classics. Do try it!

Louisa May Alcott: A Long Fatal Love Chase

2008-05-25T18:23:00.000-07:00

When it first appeared in print in 1995, it made a bit of a splash, even becoming a bestseller. Undoubtedly this was due to longtime fans of Alcott wanting to read the manuscript that had remained unpublished all these years. Alcott, of course, is best known for Little Women, and to a lesser extent Little Men and Jo's Boys. After reading A Long Fatal Love Chase, I'm pretty confident that the aforementioned books will remain the highlights of Alcott's legacy, and the latter will slip back into obscurity where it belongs; a footnote to her career.

Last August I posted 20 glaring omissions in my "have read" list. Since then I've knocked a few off that list (To Kill A Mockingbird, Island of the Blue Dolphins, Lolita, and Pride and Prejudice). And while I hope to someday get to the others, Little Women might remain unread. I saw the Winona Ryder movie version, and while I know you can't judge a book by its movie, I was so incredibly bored by it that I find it hard to face the book at all. I thought that at least I could knock Alcott from my list by reading A Long Fatal Love Chase.

What's surprising is that while I thought A Long Fatal Love Chase had more than its share of problems, being boring is surely not one of them. I'll admit, I read a few reviews of this before attempting it and I knew its reputation for being overly sensational. Still, when it opened with Rosamond declaring that she'd "gladly sell [her] soul to Satan for a year of freedom" and suddenly a stranger resembling Mephistopheles showed up, I was pleased. A bit over the top, I thought, but at least it wasn't dull. I was ready to be entertained, who cared what the critics said.

Oh but they were right.

As the story progressed, the stranger Tempest, conned Rosamind into believing they were married. When she finds out the truth, that the ceremony was a sham and that he is married already to another woman, Rosamind bolts and thus begins the long stupid love chase across Europe. I'm not averse to a stalking story. It could be written well, and as many have pointed out, seems to be a modern theme (though I'm sure stalking itself isn't a new phenomenon).

No, stalking isn't the problem, it's the melodrama, cheese, and artificiality of the writing. One of my major problems with Dan Brown's Da Vinci Code was his insistence of ending every chapter with a cliffhanger. At least he had the good sense not to also rely on exclamation points. This from the end of Chapter Six in Alcott's novel: "With a sigh of relief she rose to her knees and was about to seat herself for an instant on a low mound behind her when, as the moon shone full through the swaying branches, she saw with a cry of terror that the mound was like a new-made grave!"
I'm not opposed to exclamation points per se, but Alcott threw them in for dramatic effect the way lame sitcoms add laughtracks for comedic effect.

Furthermore, it was hard to get a sense of any chase when Tempest had the uncanny ability to pop out of anywhere. At one point Rosamind has gone into a confessional, and who should be on the other side but Tempest. It seemed as if he was never more than ten feet away, but instead of adding tension, it just came across as silly when he'd pop out of nowhere like a whack-a-mole.

My last major beef with the book was the way characters explained their actions in vivid detail. It just didn't ring true when characters would rattle on filling in missing pieces of the plot.

"This last plot was Baptiste's; I knew nothing of it till he telegraphed to me to come on at once as you were ill but would not yield and purchase freedom at the price I set. I hurried away at once to find you gone, but Baptiste told me his plan and I was forced to be satisfied. He said your entreaties would have won him but for his vow to me. Wishing to serve us both, he permitted you to escape but sent a spy after you and followed by rail in time to be prepared for you here. He chanced to have a note sent..."

And this goes on and on.

But I shan't. A Long Fatal Chase was surprisingly entertaining, but ultimately a silly book.

The Soundtrack:
1. Two Steps Behind- Def Leppard
2. Remember You're Mine- Pat Boone
3. Escape- Enrique Iglesias
4. You Belong To Me- Dean Martin
5. Never Let You Go- Third Eye Blind

(Yes, I'm quite aware that there are much better stalking songs out there. But before anyone points me in the direction of The Police, Blondie, et al, I wanted a soundtrack as lame as the novel.)

Cross-posted at The Book Mine Set.

When In Yellowknife

2008-04-04T18:55:00.000-07:00

I'm in Yellowknife today. I came here a few days ago in an attempt to buy a house. I failed. Feeling a little disappointed, (but not crushed, so reserve your sympathy please) I tried to head back to Iqaluit. It's only been a short time away, but I miss my family. Unfortunately, the weather in Iqaluit resulted in a cancelled flight and it looks like I'm here until Sunday.

Because of my lack of ability to entertain myself, I'm bored and now doing something I vowed not to do: begin another blog challenge. It's not like the challenge scene is over- saturated or anything (cough), but I wanted to devote all my attention to the Canadian Book Challenge.

Lately, however, I've been intrigued by obscure books. More than a few bloggers out there have mentioned books that I've never heard of written by authors of whom I thought I'd been well informed. I threw out the idea of hosting a challenge to highlight those shadowed books, hoping someone else would run with it. Alas, no. Which perhaps means no one's interested in participating either. I guess that'll remain to be seen. Anyway, to take the work away from me, I've decided to be more hands-off with this challenge than I am with the Canadian Challenge. All I'm committing to is giving permission for others to join this blog and write posts about their chosen books. Email me and I'll add your name to the member's roll.

It's just one measly book. You can do it. Throw it in with another challenge if you like. Steal the cheesy logo and help promote it.

Have fun uncovering those rarities!