Seventeen by Booth Tarkington

I read Tarkington's Penrod novels when I was a young lad, but I never got around to reading Seventeen. Perhaps that was because I was less than 17 at the time. Now I have taken the plunge, and I loved it. 

Contemporary readers will find that Seventeen is written in an old-fashioned style, which is not surprising since it was published in 1916. It revolves around a 17-year-old boy who is infatuated with Lola Pratt (great name!), a stranger who visits his small Midwest town for the summer. 

The book has a major flaw in that it depicts black people in ways that are unacceptable by today's standards. But so did Huckleberry Finn. For my part, I was willing to endure what some will find offensive because Tarkington, like Twain, is simply a superb writer.  Tarkington does a fine job of depicting teenage angst in a way that one has to live through to understand. His descriptions of William's feelings for the young lady who has stolen his heart are spot on. I could cite any number of examples, but one will suffice. Describing William's heartache: 

"Alas! he considered his sufferings a new invention in the world... he passed through phases of emotion which would have kept an older man busy for weeks and left him wrecked at the end of them." (p. 186)

One of my favorite scenes is set at a party at which William struggles to get one single dance with Lola. Here the book is completely detached from today's world. Teenagers dance to live music supplied by "Italians with harp, violin and flute, promising great things for dancing on a fresh-clipped lawn" (p. 195). William's rival is indisposed (vomiting, as it would be called today), giving our hero the opportunity he has been waiting for all night:

"Then gaily tinkled harp, gaily sang flute and violin! Over the greensward William lightly bore his lady, while radiant was the clear sky above the happy dancers. William's fingers touched those delicate fingers; the exquisite face smiled rosily up to him; the undreamable sweetness beat rhythmically upon his glowing ears; his feet moved in a rhapsody of companionship with hers....So passed the long, ineffable afternoon away - ah, Seventeen!" (p. 201)

It takes a special breed of reader to plow through 324 pages of this sort of writing. But I am that reader. Call me old-fashioned if you will. 

N.B. Seventeen was originally a series of "sketches" appearing in Metropolitan Magazine, later collected and published in novel form in 1916. It was the best-selling novel of the year in 1916,  the second consecutive year in which Tarkington headed the best-seller list, preceded in 1915 by his novel The Turmoil. 

Donald J. Trump vs. United States, Supreme Court, No. 23-939

I don't dare to put this on my other social media platforms, but I must speak out, if only to vent my concern. Having read the opinion of the court, I am appalled. The court seems to have gone out of its way to define a new paradigm of presidential immunity.  

I'm not a constitutional lawyer, or any sort of lawyer. But this is discouraging to say the least. I tend to support Justice Sotomayor's dissent: the majority decision "invents an atextual, ahistorical and unjustifiable immunity that puts the President above the law... This holding is unnecessary on the facts of the indictment, and the majority's attempt to apply it to the facts expands the concept of core powers beyond any recognizable bounds.... Argument by argument, the majority invents immunity through brute force." 

I also concur with David French's opinion piece in The New York Times, which says: "The Supreme Court isn’t a policy-making body; it’s an interpretive body... I disagree with the Supreme Court’s rulings for the most basic reason of all — they do not square with the text of the document the justices are supposed to interpret, and that means they’re granting the presidency a degree of autonomy and impunity that’s contrary to the structure and spirit of American government." 

The Ferryman by Justin Cronin

In terms of reader enjoyment and elegant prose, I'd give The Ferryman my highest rating. I congratulate the author on producing another fine novel that's somewhere between science fiction, fantasy and psychological thriller. 

So why is my Goodreads rating only three out of five stars? My one reservation is that Cronin's story contains a couple of wrenching plot twists. They're intriguing, but I'm still trying to reconcile some of the details. This is partly my fault, as I had to set the book aside for a couple of weeks while I attended to other priorities. To atone, I spent considerable time re-reading certain critical sections. Thank God for Kindle, which makes it easy to search for words like "Oranios" and "The Designer." Now I need a book discussion group to help me finish the task.

The theme of a "Designer"is key to this book. Readers with gnostic tendencies (a worthy lot) will recognize the concept of an artisan god separate from and subordinate to the original creator. But this book is not about theology. The Ferryman poses the question: what is real, and what is illusion? This brings to mind a favorite Moody Blues lyric, but let's not get bogged down in "Nights in White Satin." Instead, here are some of my favorite passages from The Ferryman: 

• "...it was and always would be impossible to know what was dream and what was not... all creation was boxes within boxes within boxes, each the dream of a different god."  
• "There is the thing... and then there is the echo of the thing, the shadow of the thing." Echoes and dreams play a large part in this book. Dreaming is almost deviant behavior in the world Cronin creates, but some people do it anyway. They can't help it.
• "So none of this is real, is what you're saying." "Oh, I wouldn't say that. More like a reality of a certain kind. A shadow kind, if you will." Cronin provides a nice synopsis of Plato's cave parable here.

This is heady stuff. Cronin also has a point of view on current events, including climate change and the increasing disparity between the rich and everyone else. Those who seek further analysis and commentary may want to follow the links below. 

External Links

• New York Times Book Review.  An Island Utopia Where Nobody Dies and the Living Is Easy." May 1, 2023.
• Kirkus Reviews. Twisty, Thrilling and Beautifully Written. April 11, 2023.
• Esquire. "How Justin Cronin Wrote the Ultimate Holy Sh*t Moment in The Ferryman." May 2, 2023.
• Washington Post.  Justin Cronin Returns with "The Ferryman", an Apocalyptic Thriller. April 25, 2023.

World War II Fiction: A Partial List

My father, born in 1930, was an avid reader of fiction about World War II. Too young to participate in the war himself, I suppose this was his way of experiencing it vicariously. 

Many of the titles listed below were stored in boxes in our attic during my childhood. The rest are books I picked up here and there as an adult.  They provided me with many hours of exciting reading. 

• The Caine Mutiny (Wouk) - one of my all-time favorites of any genre
• Once An Eagle (Myrer)
• Battle Cry (Uris) - I've lost track of how many times I've read it
  
• The Winds of War (Wouk; a trilogy)
• Catch-22 (Heller)
• The Young Lions (Shaw) 
  
• From Here to Eternity (Jones)
• The Naked and the Dead (Mailer)
• Von Ryan's Express (Westheimer)
• King Rat (Clavell)
• The Cruel Sea (Monserrat)
• Landfall (Shute)
• The Chequer Board (Shute)
• The Good Shepherd (Forrester)
• Tales of the South Pacific (Michener)
• The Big War (Myrer) - I may re-read this one; I scarcely recall anything about it.
• Don't Go Near the Water (Brinkley) - a humorous treatment
• Where Eagles Dare (Maclean) 
• Eye of the Needle (Follett)
• Jackdaws (Follett)

In several cases (Wouk, Uris, Shaw, Follett) the books listed above set me on a longer-term effort to read the author's other work that has been quite rewarding. Many of these novels became films. But don't judge these books by the movies.

Weaponizing the Federal Government

I don't dare post this on Facebook, because it will infuriate a certain percentage of people and lead to a series of messy, exhausting online arguments. 

Divided House Approves G.O.P. Inquiry Into ‘Weaponization’ of Government

New York Times, January 11, 2023

But this is MY blog. Mine, mine, mine. So brace yourself. I'm going to open my big fat mouth and unleash hell. 

I understand the need for openness and transparency in government. But at some point, the sheer number of investigations puts our country at risk. With everybody investigating each other, our elected representatives are becoming so tangled up in their underwear that they'll have no time to govern the country. 

Belief in God?

I asked Nancy that question recently. Her response: "If God doesn't exist, then how did we get here?" That's a useful way to phrase the question, because it helped me to articulate my own belief: God as depicted in The Bible is not necessarily the same thing as the creator of the universe, if there was one. I'm not sure about a creator, as I'll explain. 

Begin with the question: was the universe created, or has it always existed? Some (including Plato's Timaeus) would say that it must have been created, because it exists, and nothing can exist unless it is first created. I can accept the possibility of a creator. 

But a true creator -- a force that set creation in motion but was not itself created by anything --- would be an entity totally beyond our understanding. Maybe not even an entity at all. A force that acted, but was not acted upon? It's hard to even think about it. As Timaeus said, the father of all this (if there is one) is beyond our knowledge.

But assuming there was a creator, I have difficulty reconciling that entity with the God presented in The Hebrew Bible and The New Testament. 

I refer now to the God that spoke directly to early Biblical figures and intervened in human affairs; expects us worship him ("Praise ye the Lord", as the Anglican service puts it); who expects us to obey his commandments, and punishes us if we don't; who loves us and has a plan for us all; who sent his son Jesus to us and then took him away to atone for man's sins.

I struggle with the idea that the sort of creator I'm talking about would do such things. Such a creator would be so different from us that it might not even be aware of mankind, let alone bother to watch over and judge us.

I am aware that I'm applying human concepts to something that, if it exists, is beyond our understanding. As theologians tell us, it's a mistake to try to apply logic and reasoning to what is essentially a matter of faith. 

Still, I have to believe that the God of The Bible and other monotheistic religions is a man-made concept. It must have emerged as an attempt to answer the deepest questions. Why does the world appear as it does? Intelligent design, or evolution? How did all this come to be? Was it created? I never will know the answers, nor will any human being. The questions are too vast. They are beyond our capabilities.

There is much value and wisdom to be found in The Bible and the sayings of Jesus, and The Torah, and no doubt other religions as well. As well as some very eloquent writing. But I am left with little faith, just a series of questions. As I've said before, I do pray in times of crisis. But I'm not sure anyone is listening.

Valerie Leon: Signed Photos

This English actress is one of the reasons I like the "Carry On" films from Ealing Studios. Who could forget her in "Carry On Again Doctor?" She’s also a former Bond girl. And of course, the star of "Blood From The Mummy’s Tomb." 

For 20 pounds sterling, she’ll send you a signed photo with a “customized message" of your choice. Clever girl. Do I dare to order one of her photos? I envision it in my basement man-cave, near the pool table, bearing a customized message: “Darling…. All of my love, Val."

Valerie Leon and Jim Dale in "Carry On Again Doctor"

The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles

 

My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Every so often, I read a book simply because it has been on The New York Times bestseller list for a long time. The presumption is that if a book has been highly successful, and the capsule description doesn't put me off, there'a a better-than-average chance I'll enjoy it. This book is the exception to that rule. For reasons I can't quite put my finger on, it didn't appeal to me. It struck me as artificial, the situations and characters as contrived. I did read it to the end, though. I don't like to abandon a book partway through.

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Monkey Pox

My cold or Covid or whatever it is has turned into a deep cough that is, in clinical terms, “productive.” I had a teleconference appointment with a doctor this afternoon. It’s not my usual doctor, and not the usual way of visiting a doctor. This will be a teleconference with a “resident” who looks to be younger than our daughter. The practice is so busy that a resident is the best they can offer. 

Because of my symptoms, they wouldn’t let me come into the doctor's office. It’s not Monkey Pox. I am not plagued with itchy, scabby sores that crack open and ooze pus when you pick them. 

As I envision the pox spectrum, Monkey Pox sounds more disgusting than chicken pox, but perhaps not as dangerous as smallpox. With respect to size, I'm not sure whether a monkey pox is larger than a chicken pox. Some monkeys are smaller than chickens. Others are larger.

Back On My Feet Again

 Suffering with a wicked cold, I've devised a three-point plan for my recovery. 

1. Get my strength back
2. Get back on my feet 
3. Get back to 100%

This makes perfect sense to me. How can a man be said to function at 100%, if he isn't standing on his own two feet? And of course, you can't get back on your feet until you get your strength back. 

The Gospel According to John

Having completed my reading of The Gospel According to John (The New Oxford Annotated Bible, New Standard Revised Version), I have to say something about the numerous passages that blame Jews for the persecution and death of Jesus. I've decided to list the most egregious and allow readers to decide for themselves whether or not these are the roots of the anti-Semitism that plagues our society to this day.

• 5:16 - 18. "Therefore the Jews started persecuting Jesus, because he was doing such things on the sabbath. But Jesus answered them, 'My Father is still working, and I also am working.' For this reason the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him, because he was not only breaking the sabbath, but was also calling God his father, thereby making himself equal to God." 
• 7:1. "He [Jesus] did not wish to go about in Judea because the Jews were looking for an opportunity to kill him." 
• 11:53. "So from that day forward they planned to put him to death." 
• 19:15. "They [the Jews] cried out, "Away with him! Away with him! Crucify him!"

Taking these words at face value, it is impossible to escape the conclusion that the author(s) of The Gospel According to John are telling us that Jews were responsible for Jesus' death. There's more of the same in The Gospel According to Matthew. See Matthew 12:14, 26:3, 26:59, and all of 27. 

Raised in the Episcopal faith, I was never taught that Jews were Christ-killers. This was never mentioned at all in the religious education that lead to my confirmation, nor in any church service I attended. But now that I have read The Gospel According to John word for word, I am disillusioned to say the least. 

I've been told that it's not right for an untrained person to pluck a couple of statements from the Bible and try to understand them. Some say that you shouldn't approach the Bible on your own, because it requires a learned seminarian, or at least the leader of a church Bible study group, to put these statements in a fuller context of church teachings. I don't feel the need to pursue that path. I've seen enough. Those seeking further perspective may want to read Constantine's Sword: The Church and The Jews, A History by James Carroll (2002).

Military-Style Rifle

After the Uvalde TX killings, two Facebook users (one of whom is unknown to me) took me to task for using the phrase "military-style rifle." Apparently there's controversy about that term and others, such as "assault weapon", "assault rifle" and "AR15-style rifle." The firearms industry trade association urges us to call them "modern sporting rifles." 

The Associated Press Style Guide advises newsrooms to avoid controversy by using the term "semi-automatic rifle." Author Philip Caputo used "man-killer" and "street sweeper" in his novel "Horn of Africa." Caputo had first-hand knowledge from the time he spent in Vietnam.

The Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution refers only to "arms." And, of course, a "well-regulated Militia." The "well-regulated" phrase is often absent from the arguments of those resist gun law reform.

One wonders how we'll ever get sensible gun laws in place if we can't even agree on what to call them.

Photo: Budsgunshop.com

Abbott and Costello's Jack and the Beanstalk (1952)

Important news: this “classic” Abbott and Costello film from 1952 is now out on BluRay:  https://www.classicflix.com/blog/2022/04/18/jack-and-the-beanstalk-70th-anniversary-limited-edition-this-july

Important news? Well, it’s important to me, and I shall tell you why. When I was in elementary school, I had a birthday party. The highlight was to be a double feature at the local movie theater: Abbott and Costello Meet Captain Kidd and Abbott and Costello’s Jack and the Beanstalk feature (mentioned above). My dad took me and a few of my friends to The Strand Cinema to see it. 

But at some point before the Jack and the Beanstalk movie started, he announced that we were leaving. I had the strong impression that it was all too much for him to bear.  

On the way out, I protested that we wanted to see Abbott and Costello meet Jack and the Beanstalk. But to no avail. He made us leave anyway. He simply would not, could not, stand any more Abbott and Costello. And that was that. There was a bit of a scene with my mother when we got home and I explained what happened. 

Borderline by Lawrence Block

249 pp. Hard Case Crime/Titan Books. London. 2014. ISBN 978-1-78116-777-9

This is a reprint of a novel originally published in 1961 under the pseudonym Don Holliday. The original title was "Border Lust." But I didn't discover that until I was halfway through it. 

 The Hard Case Crime publishing house markets it as "scorching pulp fiction." But I soon realized that this is material from Block's earliest period. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, he supported himself by writing what is referred to on his web site as "midcentury erotica." This sort of thing has been characterized elsewhere as soft porn for the mass market. I'm at a loss to explain what we'd call it today. 

"Soft porn" seems too harsh.  It's pretty tame by contemporary standards. This makes it something of a curiosity for readers such as myself, who were children back in 1961 and grew up reading Mickey Spillane, Ian Fleming and Playboy magazine. It's racier than Spillane and Fleming, but not "dirty" per se, at least to my way of thinking. So what do we call it? Smut? Filth?  

About halfway through I lost interest in the sex scenes, skimming or bypassing them entirely to see where all this was leading. Setting aside the spicier bits, it's entertaining, pretty well-written for popular fiction, and the plot moves along briskly. The book is only 166 pages in length, so I found it well worth finishing. The "beatnik" slang used by some of the characters sounds, of course, terribly outdated today. But it's interesting too, a relic of a bygone time.

Back in those days, Block wrote 12 to 15 novels a year like this under various pen names just to support himself. Kudos to him for sticking it out until he'd reached the point where he could publish better work under his own name.

N.B. The Hard Case Crime volume includes three of Block's short stories from the same era, one of which is the memorably titled "Stag Party Girl" from the February 1963 issue of "Man's Magazine." More information about the 1961 version, and background about the original publisher, Greenleaf Classics Nightstand Books, can be found at Vintage Greenleaf Classics Books. 

The Pagan God by Javier Teixidor

The Pagan God: Popular Religion in the Greco-Roman Near East 

by Javier Teixidor

The idea of a pagan god has a certain creepy attraction. As everyone knows, pagan gods were not bound by modern standards of polite behavior. One remembers Greek myths featuring randy Zeus, bawdy satyrs chasing shrieking nymphs, Arthur Machen’s story The Great God Pan, and so on. A few pagan gods are even mentioned sparingly in The Bible. I’ve long been curious about them. So I made it my business to read this book.

It’s not written for a general audience. This book is, according to the preface, “an essay on religion in antiquity... an attempt to study the religious elements which late north-western Semitic inscriptions had in common." The time period under discussion encompasses the Persian Empire through the first Christian centuries, or to be precise, the second half of the first millennium B.C. and the first centuries A.D. The book draws heavily on archaeological finds made in the Near East during the one hundred years or so before the book was written in 1977. These include the discovery in 1928 of the ancient city of Ugarit in what is now Syria. Among the ruins, archaeologists found clay tablets written in a then-unknown language. These included a series of stories about the Canaanite god Baal, a "weather god" associated with fertility.

Teixidor maintains that it is not enough to focus on the mystery cults of Orpheus, Dionysis, Isis or Mithras, as these "tell us little about the feelings of the broad masses." He holds that "the common man never rose above his daily prayers, and we may wonder whether the mystery religions were ever the actual creed of the unenlightened faithful...It is in the copious inscriptions produced by the Semites in their own homeland that paramount interest lies" for this author.

Therefore, Teixodor focuses his book on the cult of Baal Shamin (“Lord of Heaven”), the chief god of the Phoenicians, and pagan gods such as El, Bel, and Dagon (or Dagan) worshipped by the Phoenicians, Aramaeans and Arabs. The author holds that the pagan cults were not really religions in the sense we know today, in part because they had no "theological creed such as appears in Judaism or Christianity." Personally, I wonder if that is simply because of the limited source material scholars have to study. The pagan religions were truly old. We may not fully understand them simply because scholars have little to go on except clay tablets, inscriptions on monuments and images on coins. Putting a book like this together must have been a challenge.

Readers will search in vain for an account of how the pagan gods faded away as monotheism took hold. But it's interesting to note that the Baal cult was still prevalent as late as the year 130 AD. One would have thought Christianity was sweeping the globe by then, but apparently that was not yet the case.

N.B. Fans of horror fiction will probably share my view that H.P. Lovecraft borrowed the name of the pagan god Dagon for his short story of the same name, and for his novella “The Shadow Over Innsmouth.”

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Revelator by Daryl Gregory

 

Revelator by Daryl Gregory
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

How much did I like this book? So much that I began it on Wednesday night and finished it (with breaks to sleep) on Friday morning. Except for meals, all other activities were set aside. It's on the horror/fantasy spectrum. If that's to your taste, and/or your family seems dysfunctional, I strongly recommend Revelator.

N.B. This book was one of the Washington Post's best science fiction, horror and fantasy books of 2021. 

Message from Malaga

 

Message from Malaga by Helen MacInnes
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Originally published in 1971, this espionage novel is indeed a "good read." Set in Malaga and Granada on the Costa del Sol, it involves a flamenco dancer (the fiery Tavita), a retired bullfighter (the brooding Esteban) and two American expatriates with connections to the U.S. intelligence service. They work together to help refugees from Castro's Cuba escape to freedom. A high-ranking defector with KGB connections shows up and arrogantly insists on receiving special treatment, endangering everyone.

I gave this one three stars because the dialogue is a bit unnatural at times (the main complaint of The New York Times' reviewer back in 1971). But the descriptions of the exotic setting and brisk pacing of the plot more than compensate for that. I'll definitely read more of MacInnes' work. 

N.B. The book was a commercial success, ranking as one of the top ten U.S. fiction bestsellers in the year of publication.

Fair Warning

Fair Warning by Michael Connelly
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I was pleasantly surprised to find myself enjoying this book. I didn't particularly like my first experience with Connelly's writing, which was one of the early Harry Bosch novels. That one seemed formulaic to me. It didn't compare well with the work of authors such as Hammett, Chandler, or John D. MacDonald, or more contemporary practitioners such as Ruth Rendell, Denise Mina and Tana French. Procedurals don't really interest me any more. 

But in Fair Warning, Connelly chose a journalist as his subject, not a policeman. Perhaps that's why I found this book so satisfying. It has the ring of truth to it. It's an area where Connelly has deep real-world experience, having been a journalist before he became a novelist. The characters were interesting and believable, and the story moves along briskly. An out-of-work newspaper reporter is forced by circumstances to work for a consumer watchdog publication. He stumbles onto an unscrupulous genetic testing firm whose data is being sold on the dark web to creepy involuntary celibate men seeking women who are genetically predisposed to risky behavior such as one-night stands and addiction. And one of the "incels" is a killer.  

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Morgan le Fay

Morgan le Fay, King Arthur’s half-sister (sometimes called Morgana), is involved in the current plot in the Prince Valiant comic strip. 

This creates dramatic tension because Prince Valiant’s wife Aleta is also a powerful enchantress who has described herself as “a witch-queen from the South” and “queen of witches.” Aleta has beef with Morgan le Fay, who has transformed Prince Valiant into a fish-goblin guard in her underwater palace.

Oddly enough, this week a young woman appeared in the shop and showed me her college ID to claim our 10% student discount. The name on the card was “Morgan Fay”, or at least I  thought it was. This led to the following exchange:

Me (incredulously): "Is your name really Morgan Fay???” 

She: “It’s Morgan Ray, but some people call me Morgan le Fay.” 

Me (grinning foolishly): “That’s awesome!"

Sadly, neither looked like Helen Mirren, who played  Morgana in the film Excalibur (1981).

An American Tragedy

by Theodore Dreiser

Library of America, New York 

972 pages. ISBN 978-1-931082-310.

This outstanding novel is based on the true story of the Gillette murder case of 1906. But it's much more than a crime story. 

Clyde Griffiths is a young man from a poor family who seeks to rise in society by attaching himself to people of wealth and power, including his rich uncle. In sharp contrast to his wealthy friends, his impoverished parents are itinerant street preachers who are "wrapped up in evangelizing the world." Yet he has no sense of right and wrong to guide him. 

Published in 1925, certain aspects of the story will seem dated to contemporary readers. But for me that was more than balanced by Dreiser's occasional powerful messages about religion, class, wealth, capitalism (he was a committed socialist) and, most importantly, personal responsibility. 

Dreiser on the religious beliefs of Clyde's parents: "...in some blind, dualistic way she and Asa insisted, as do all religionists, in disassociating God from harm and error and misery, while granting Him nevertheless supreme control."  

Dreiser on capitalism: "There had to be higher and higher social orders to which the lower social classes could aspire. One had to have castes....It was necessary when dealing with the classes and intelligences below one, commercially or financially, to handle them according to the standards to which they were accustomed. And the best of these standards were those which held these lower individuals to a clear realization of how  difficult it was to come by money... It informed and strengthened the minds and spirits of those who were destined to rise. And those who were not should be kept right where they were."

The latter part of the novel seems to shift gears into more straightforward storytelling, with courtroom scenes as compelling as any I've read. Yet here again, Dreiser manages to insert some pointed observations about how law enforcement can be swayed by political considerations.  After all, district attorneys are elected officials.