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Powerful AND Beautiful writing

Revisado: 10-09-24

A tale of 100 years ago, told in clear and beautiful language. It was as if I was once again listening to by grandmother (born in 1887) who loved the people she shared her life with, and so sought to tell me her tales clearly and truthfully,without embellishment or censorship. e. g. She travelled from Minsk to the US in 2013 crossing Europe and then the Atlantic (in steerage) alone with four young children in order to
join her husband who had left two years before to earn money "to bring them over". In her tale, the trip was neither harsh nor particularly fearful. "In steerage we were almost all young people and their children, Some as couples, but some women like me traveling to join their husband or other family members, or young men who were going first to prepare the way. Although, there were some who complained, we felt we young, on a great adventure to make new, and better lives for ourselves, and that was the pervasive spirit among the travelers. In the " Song of the Lark" Willa Cather presents the trip to fulfillment iin the other direction, from Colorado to Europe, but very much the same, and so even more universal.
I want to thank " Willa" for this gift of remembrance.
Dan

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Dan Schiff

Revisado: 08-29-23

I have read Parades End 4 times since I was 18 over 60 years ago. . Every reading strengthened my conviction that this was truly one of the greatest works of the 20th Century. The characters and their times come alive, and I am grateful to Ford Maddox Ford for presenting me with such friends.

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Rereading Barchedter Towers after 50 years.

Revisado: 04-02-23

It was a long time since I last read Trollope and I was delightfully surprised to find that Barchester Towers is even more witty and insightful than I remembered. The Audible book is read with a real understanding of what is transpiring and described in the text , which adds to the overall enjoyment.

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A Fine " Later Life Reunion Visit" with old friends.

Revisado: 03-22-23

It was a truly pleasant 3 hour " reunion" visit with the young Tom and Huck guided by Mark Twain himself. Tom and Huck were still teenagers, Jim was somewhat older, wiser and more articulate. Mark Twain himself had aged into a mischievous old man. Many of the Tales from the Arabian Nights retold as Twain looks ahead to life in the soon to unfold Twentieth. Century.

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A different Romanticism

Revisado: 01-29-23

A long, very long, yet worthwhile journey. Here Eliot explicitly presents us with a "Romanticism" which does not seem silly while it also avoids falling into Nihilism. Eliot is right, In life sometimes the " good guys" do win.

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Chapter 24 : A different view of Waugh?

Revisado: 10-03-22

Chapter 24 is a story about a group of 102 Jews in Yugoslavia at the very end of WW 2.
It is told strangely for Waugh, no attempt at humor, just a kind of “matter of fact realism”. It is close to a tragedy. A matter of fact Scottish major who found himself in a situation where he could do some good for 100 displaced and still very vulnerable “ Jews “ and really tried to do good in a “matter of fact “ way. It seems that all the Brits and Americans ( or the Brits and Americans as a whole) did want to do good for this 100 person remnant ( mostly old), who had somehow by chance managed to survive. Two were individually worthwhile, not having succumbed to the miserable depression that infected holocaust victims. The major particularly wanted not only to “ save” but actually help these 2 in a human way. He was a man better than ourselves because he actually tried to help as a human being and as a British officer. We knew all along that he would fail in some way, and while the other 100 did survive, the Major’s human kindness and the humanity clung to by the two Jews ended in their murder.
Truly a story that aroused “ pity and fear” and a deep respect for good government which makes the avoidance of tragedy possible.

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A Second Reading after 50 Years

Revisado: 07-15-22

I first read this book well over 50 years ago. I thought it was a “good book, worth reading”. I realized over the years that I remembered many things from “Cry the Beloved Country”: the quiet dignity of the central character, the Omafundis; the conditions of his life in South Africa; and the sad events that overtook his life at the end, the subject matter of Paton’s story. I never thought I would reread this book, never thought that it was a “ Great Book”. Now as an old man Audio Books has allowed me to reread a great many books, and I thought that it would be pleasant to hear this story once again.
Here in the USA at these troubled times of radical civil unrest and hatred in the summer of 2022 I now feel that I have just heard a true “ tragedy” for our times, and so a “ Great Book”; i. e. a book that raises “essential questions“ as Hamlet says to the “players” at the beginning of Act 3. And this reading was a truly fine performance.
“Cry the Beloved Country” is a fine tale, well written and entertaining. But it is so much more, it is a Great Book” that speaks to our hearts. Is the light of hope at the end welcomed as a real human possibility or simply a comforting romantic hope? I won’t live long enough to see for myself. But I do thank thank Alan Paton for allowing me to see this “ essential” question in a broader and deeper way. That is what “Great Writers” do.
Dan Schiff

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Lucretius

Revisado: 05-18-22

A lively and entertaining comedy. Evelyn Waugh at his funniest and best. Very well read.

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A clear and beautifully composed message for our times

Revisado: 12-01-21

One hundred years ago Rebecca West wrote this beautiful tale of young love and the traumas of adult life. We can not live an adult life as a child in even the most beautiful Garden of Eden. We are compelled to recognize the truth of human life, to answer the riddle of the Sphinx for ourselves, despite the pain. Not to be philosophers for whom the unexamined life is not worth living, but simply to remain human.
Put another way Rebecca West, a women writing 100 years ago has displayed and explained what we now call “male midlife crisis” as well as anyone has. I was compelled to reread this novella as soon as I had finished my first reading. I wish I could write her a thank you note.

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Passing

Revisado: 11-14-21

A well written and highly insightful novella. The reading, with various voices, was fast paced and clear with appropriate nuances and inflections. To my mind, the novella was more authentic and convincing than the movie recently released.

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