Summer Reading IV - August

August

The first two weeks of August was my official vacation, traveling to see our families in that humid hell-hole to the south. Consequently I put aside everything connected with my job and felt no guilt at all reading and reading.

12. Moby Dick by Herman Melville. A Recorded Book. The all time great American classic. Much to my surprise, I discovered it deserves this reputation. It simply is an amazing book. Melville threw everything into it, intending to write something ‘important.’ He sure did. The ruminations on whales, life, the soul, race, and about a dozen other topics, any one of which usually suffices for a novelist, are wonderfully alive and pertinent after all these years. The final chase of the great white whale is one of the most exciting adventures I have read. Most readers decry its length, but I can honestly say that when it was over I wished for another chapter or two. The striking thing to me was that after nearly 160 years it is still a remarkably ‘American’ story. This closed a gap in my education: despite having two different comic book versions of Moby Dick as a child, and having seen the Gregory Peck movie when it first came out, I had never actually read the novel itself. [btw, anybody out there seen the Patrick Stewart version? is it any good?]

13. American Gods, by Neil Gaimon. I listened to parts of this on audio book, but read most of it from a book Mearéad’s dad loaned me (now he’s gone and loaned me Ilium by Dan Simmons - all 725 pages of it - do they pay these guys by the word?). Gaimon is a good writer (he is also a great fan of Gene Wolfe, q.v.). One odd thing though. For a novel about old world gods come to life, this novel has nothing to say about religious belief of any sort as far as I can see. And he is very careful to avoid Christianity, other than when an Egyptian god makes a casual remark over beer about Jesus who "does pretty good over here. But I met a guy who said he saw him hitchhiking by the side of the road in Afghanistan and nobody was stopping to give him a ride.’
But how can you dislike a novel with lines like this in response to the hero’s attempts to amuse a little girl with magic tricks:

"The black dog licked its long snout. Then it said, in a deep, dry voice, "I saw
Harry Houdini once, and believe me, man, you are no Harry Houdini."

14. The Old Wine Shades by Graham. An audio book Carmen and I listened to on our way to an undisclosed location in the south. Alas, a waste of time, even though the narrator was wonderful, the wit droll, the characters interesting. In fact, the only thing left out was a coherent and believable plot. Even fans of this series hated it. Trevor the wine snob is the second most memorable character (Mongo the Dog is the first - Graham was evidently in the mood to write an animal story).

15. Shadow of the Torturer by Gene Wolfe. Turned out to be as good as Elliot said it would. I have too much to say about it to encapsulate it here. And now I am going to have to get the last books of the series.

16. Barbarian Tides by Walter Goffart. Goffart is one of the best early medievalists in the world. Years ago he came up with a theory about the barbarian invasions that finished off the Roman Empire that argued that they were simply a real estate deal with the Romans, ‘an imaginative experiment that got slightly out of hand." (That’s my favorite quote of all time dealing with an historical event). Now he writes an equally brilliant book reconsidering his theory in the light of several decades of impassioned criticism. He says now that he didn’t go far enough! He was right the first time, and now he will reformulate his thesis and shore up the few weak points in it. Whether you agree with him or not, you cannot read this book and not be informed about the later Roman Empire and the coming of the Barbarian Kingdoms in ways you never imagined.

It is, I should point out, serious scholarship intended for scholars who have read all the sources and are prepared to listen to arguments entailing detailed examination of the Latin texts. Thus not for everyone. And when I say 'brilliant' I don't necessarilly mean he is right. But damn it is a good book.

17. American Theocracy by Kevin Philips (audio). I am not in a mood to write much about this right now. It’s a good book examining three major trends in American political life that Philips thinks are terminal for the Republic: dependence on foreign oil, the rise of a religious party (the Republicans) for the first time in American politics, and the rise of high finance as America’s principle industry. Over drawn and overly pessimistic, but an important read if you are a politically aware citizen. And I would recommend reading at least some good reviews about it for my non-American readers so they may understand why a man of faith in America in this year of our lord’s incarnation 2006, the sixth year of the reign of George II, the fifth year of the War on Islam*, might have a decidedly different perspective on the role of religion in the public sphere than other sincere Christians of the Anglosphere. (Does any of this make sense?)

*oops. Of course I meant the War on Terrorism. Sorry.

18. Claw of the Conciliator by Gene Wolfe. I will content myself for the moment with simply saying Gene Wolfe is brilliant, and stands head and shoulders above most of the fantasy writers out there. He does something nearly unique with his vocabulary that is difficult, in fact, impossible for lesser writers. I will talk about this later.

Aside: Carmen thinks the cover is really cheesy.

And at that point, as I finished reading Gene Wolfe and listening to Kevin Philips, my summer came to a close. Back to school. It’s getting to be a like a real job. Now, this week, before Thursday, I have to read Hannible, Enemy of Rome, and The Year 1000. No matter how crazy my colleagues are and how anti-intellectual my administration, where else could I find a job that would pay me to read?!