From: rsquires@cyclops.eece.unm.edu (Roger Squires)
Subject: thoughts on recent books
Date: Tue, 15 Sep 92 09:00:06 GMT
Organization: University of New Mexico, Albuquerque


I've read various books lately, some of them mentioned recently
here, and here are some thoughts on them.

_The Book of Laughter and Forgetting, Milan Kundera
	Probably the best of the lot, IMHO.  As he says, a novel in
	the form of variations.  A collection of seven short pieces
	with different characters and situations, it almost does
	remind you of one of the better sonata form musical pieces
	that are different yet subtly related.  Heavily influenced
	by his experiences in communist-bloc Europe (I enjoyed the
	different perspective of a foreign writer).  This book was
	very funny in parts (the girls wearing the rhinoceros horn!)
	and the afterword with the author was an excellent touch that
	helped illuminate the points I did not pick up on in the text.
	In fact, I would recommend reading this first, as it doesn't
	really give anything away.  Quite impressive.

_Animalia_ by Graeme Base
	A wonderful oversize picture book with large colorful and
	detailed drawings, which also show considerable effort
	in composition.  Each picture is full of objects and
	animals beginning with the letter in question, and you
	could spend quite a lot of time with your child naming them
	all.  Also, each picture has the artist hidden in them,
	which are damn hard to find!  This sort of reminds me of a painting
	called _The Curious Fox_, which has animals and faces woven
	into the forest scenery, very hard to spot, though I saw nothing
	this arcane in _A_.

_A Wrinkle in Time_, Madeleine L'Engle
	I was in the middle of this one when Ms. Klier mentioned
	it recently. A teenage book, this has an outlook
	that is clearly, er, Catholic :^)  Not bad, but children's
	books that I liked better recently are Charlotte's Web,
	The Swing in the Summerhouse, and What The Witch Left,
	although I guess these don't really address the 'tweens,' as
	Tolkien calls them.

_What's Bred in the Bone_ by Davies
	The High Priestess of the RAB Circle of Eight assigned this
	one for us to read :) and it was quite enjoyable.
	A 'good read,' as they say.  I just have to complain though
	(not really a complaint, more an observation) that I don't
	feel like I learned anything new by reading this book.
	What I mean is that I feel that the author comes from exactly
	the same culture that I do, and all the observations he makes
	about, for instance, Catholicism being more intellectual/liberal
	compared to Protestantism, the Medieval proclivity for 
	symbol-making vs. the modern psychological concept,  Age of Reason
	vs. Age of Faith, etc. fit in so well with what I already know, 
	that they came out sounding like platitudes which did not
	effect me all that much.  However, the part where he paints
	the picture of his life, and the different and interlocking
	interpretations that others extract from it was well done.
	Also, there is a strong thread running thru the novel emphasizing
	the influence of genetics/upbringing (and the stars, which 
	dovetails nicely with the medieval/modern reconciliation
	that he seems to be aiming at -- great!) versus chance that
	I'm interested in following up -- but I'll leave this for the Circle.
	All in all, it went down smoothly (almost *too* smoothly
	for my taste, as above) and as this is apparently the first
	of a trilogy, I may be reading more of Davies, though I
	might back up to the Deptford Trilogy, as that was 
	mentioned in the earlier thread on Psychological Books....
	Anyway, certainly this was more memorable than :

_The Underground Man_ by MacDonald
	I was rather disappointed in this one, mainly because
	it was a virtual clone of the only other RM I've read,
	_Sleeping Beauty_, with the names of the families
	and natural disaster changed.  The consistently pessimistic
	outlook of Archer is frankly a downer, and the
	"Freudian/generational" (as a correspondent called it)
	plot scheme doesn't appeal to me so much.  Actually,
	'disappointed' is not the operative word, as it certainly
	is not written badly -- I just didn't like it.
	But I will reserve judgement until I read a couple more
	of his; perhaps _The Chill_.

_The Three Investigators_
	Sorry, I couldn't resist.  I like these children's cannon
	fodder books.  I've finished a few more of them.

_The True History of the Conquest of Mexico_, Bernal Diaz del Castillo
	The best first-hand account book I have ever read.
	Right up there with Thucydides, Xenophon, etc.
	Beats Cortes' letters all to hell (I'm on the 3rd letter now)
	for both accuracy and reader interest.  If you want to
	read one of these, read this one.  Thoroughly satisfying, and
	luckily I found an unabridged edition, which includes the
	Third Part (cut out of other editions), and covers
	events after the Conquest up to Cortes' death.  I just wish
	to hey that this edition had the scholarly apparatus that
	the volume of Cortes' letters that I'm reading has.
	I must warn the reader that any of these accounts are seriously
	biased (I hope to expand on this in another thread eventually)
	and that you *must* read some modern criticism and other
	contemporary accounts if you hope to come away with anything
	but a grossly distorted view of these events.  Unfortunately
	the best notes that I've seen are in the volume of Cortes'
	letters (I've read two general introduction books, but no
	modern scholarly works as yet -- any recommendations?).
	Sahagun and las Casas, _The War of Conquest_ (from
	the 12th book of the Florentine Codex), and _A Brief Account
	of the Devestation of the Indies_ (I haven't found a copy
	of las Casas' _Historia_ yet, alas!) are short and provide
	some balance, but the notes in Cortes' letters are *necessary*.
	I recall Mr. Morris comparing Cortes' letters to Caesar,
	but so far at least I can't agree.  _The Civil War_ was much
	superior for me.  I think the writing style was better
	(I realize that the letter format doesn't help Cortes here),
	and the outlook wasn't so damn servile!  Ha!  And here, shorter
	means better (except for Diaz!), and Caesar's brevity and
	conciseness are virtues.
	
_Dream Psychology_ by Freud
	Covers the same ground as the _Introductory Lectures_,
	with some new dreams thrown in.  This is the second Freud
	I've read (I'm not quite done yet) and have found them both
	to be highly readable and intriguing, especially since
	psychology is a black hole for me.

_Their Eyes Were Watching God_, Hurston
	About a 100 pages into this one, and it's fine so far.
	The structure appears to be fairly simple, and
	the best part is the language and turns of phrase,
	which cast a different light on everyday events in a
	refreshing and insightful way.  Also a C of E book.

I've read others as well, (like _The Prisoner of Zenda_) :) ) that
I don't feel deserve any special mention, and this post is long enough.

Roger Squires
rsquires@cyclops.eece.unm.edu