The Diaries of Adam and Eve

An amalgamation of several pieces Twain wrote on this subject over more
than a decade.
This version also contains many references to Adam going over the Niagra
Falls as it was written to be part of a souvenir book for the 1893 World Fair.
Extracts from Adam’s Diary were written first followed by Eve’s Diary. Twain
wanted these two stories published together – each tale counterpoints the
other – it was many years (1996) before this was actually done in the Oxford
edition.
They were written at a time of great personal sadness – Twain had lost two
daughters and his wife. The remark Adam makes about it is better to be with
Eve out of the garden of Eden rather than in Eden without her is often
regarded as a homage to his dead wife.
Twain is not know for his in-depth portrayal of female characters far less
speaking in the voice of a female. With Eve that voice is often smug, overly emotive.
Adam’s voice by comparison is cynical, terse. Eve is immersed in
Eden, Adam is indifferent.
The Diaries clearly define the polarity between the male and female roles in
the early 1900s. This polarity is satirised via the personification of these
stereotypes.
The characters are very clearly satirised stereotypes. Eve epitomises the
stereotypical biblical female (who will follow her man anywhere) and also
embodies many of the 1900s “womanly” stereotypes.
Eve’s entries are longer, more descriptive and emotive. There is a strong
sense of self-consciousness in her entries. She is confident (smug) and seeks
self-improvement. She is aware that humanity is the “principal experiment”.
She is always questioning and “experimenting”. Her experiments often lead to
conclusions that smack of reductio ad absurdum: feathers, flowers etc. float
therefore so do rocks! By the same token Eve seems completely oblivious to
Adam’s dislike and annoyance with her.
Adam’s entries are far terser, he regards Eve as intrusive, blundering and
annoying. He seeks to avoid her. Gradually he loses his aversion to her, sex
no doubt having a lot to do with this. It is interesting that Adam fails to
understand that the babies are small humans and not another species. His
jealousy of the babies is evident – his experiments nearly have fatal
consequences.
Eve learns fear after her fire experiment but it is the death of Abel that brings
home to her their fallen state – their own mortality and the resultant sense of
2
loss defines her understanding of what it is to be fallen. She points out the
unfairness of a god that would condemn them to their fallen state:
“We could not know it was wrong to disobey the command, for the words were
strange to us and we did not understand them. We did not know right from
wrong – how should we know?... If we had been given a Moral Sense first –
ah, that would have been fairer, would have been kinder. Then we should be
to blame if we disobeyed…”
Eve is acting as the mouthpiece for Twain’s scepticism of religion (he had
remarked in the past that if Christ was to return the last thing he would ever
be was a Christian).
This is not just a satire on the biblical story it is also an examination of the
roles of men and women and love.

One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich - the film

Just a brief update - got the film working - my mistake before.

John Hurt who was to go on to play Strelnikov in Dr Zhivago, not only played the part of Ivan but also narrated - reading passages from the book. Today, no doubt, the part would be played by a Russian or at least an Eastern European.
  The film throughout exposes the futility of the Gulags, the endless privations, and most of all the gloom, coldness and bleakness of the inmates' lives.
  There is some criticism of the film on the web but we found it to be true to the book and cleverly filmed.
  The minutiae of the men's lives, the close ups of eating disgusting looking gruel, the hiding places for precious objects - all in subdued greys and browns - evoked a feeling of despair and desperation for their plight. The sense of isolation is conjured up by the opening and closing sequences. Not only is the camp miles from anywhere but there is also the feeling that these men are forgotten by society and could just disappear.

  PS And because I like to find allusions -  I heard this in the film and found it in the book.
'Morning came as it always does'.
  I have always liked this phrase which is in a favourite children's book - Amos and Boris by William Steig and now I know where it originates from - Ivan Denisovich - very satisfying.

One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich

We were supposed to watch the film but despite having viewed it in the afternoon with full sound when the time came to watch it with the members sitting patiently I could not get the sound to come on so instead we discussed the book, its writer and the relationship between the two. The film is available on UTUBE as are a series of interviews with both Solzhenitsyn and other members of his family.
   It is 51 years since the book saw the light of day and was considered to have changed Russian's view of their country. Kruschev approved its publication in line with his attempts to put an end to the Stalinist era. (We remembered reading his speech to the politburo in the Great Speeches series).
   A number of translators have been involved and while we didn't have time to do a careful analysis of the differences it would be interesting to do. My copy was translated by Gillon Aitkin in 1970 without any preface as some later editions have.
   While not autobiographical One Day obviously draws upon the author's own time spent in a Gulag. We discussed many aspects of the book from its beautifully poetic descriptions of the cold to the interplay between the different characters. The sense of humanity, the love of the mother country and the endless wariness and weariness of the main character Shukhov are powerfully depicted. We are given a clear, uncompromising picture of the utter futility of the camp. The pointlessness thereof - and not only for the prisoners but for those who are guarding them as well - for they too have to watch their backs, endure the perishing cold and the ghastly food.
   Numbers feature prominently throughout - the cyphers by which the prisoners are known, the tortuous counting and recounting and re-recounting of the men as they line up again and again for work parties, for food or simply to be counted. This reminded me of the German concentration and POW camps where those in power delighted in the numbers game - to what end I wonder. We talked about self-perception, about remaining an individual, how to stay sane.
   We read how important it is for Shukhov to maintain his dignity and his insistence that the work he does is of the highest standard - despite knowing that it is in fact a complete waste of time but to give up is to fail and to fail is to be trampled and to lose self-respect and probably to become the cypher and to lose one's identity and ultimately to die. The whole experience is a dreadful game but a game that can be won with the right tactics - it might not seem so but though the stakes are high positive outcomes are possible. Shukhov knows this and plays the game - a game of life indeed such that we hope never to see again.
  The Baptists in particular are able to survive - 'the camp does not get them down' - they find inner strength from their faith. Everyone tries in his own way to find a way to survive but not all succeed.
   Yet there are still countries ruled by tyrants with overwhelming power over their citizens - where to dissent from the 'party' dogma or criticism of the leadership or in fact anything that they don't like can result in death - North Korea's leader has just executed his ex-girlfriend.
   If you ever think it is cold - read this passage
  'Shukhov's face-cloth had got all wet from his breath, and in places it had frozen and formed an icy crust. He pulled it down from his face to his neck and stood with his back to the wind. He didn't feel cold everywhere, but his hands were numb in his thin mittens, and the toes of his left foot were frozen: his left boot was in bad shape and would have to be sewn up again'. How many times had it already been sewn up we wonder.
  Read this book and if you have read it pass it on the someone younger than you - it is important for this story to be read and re-read to remind us not only of man's inhumanity to man but also of one man's courage - to tell us how it was and to shame those who would continue such cruelty.
  Solzhenitsen is today part of the school curriculum in Russia but sadly that does not mean that it is read by all nor that his message has been understood.

The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ, Philip Pullman

This is a re-telling of the life of Jesus, told mostly in the voice of Jesus' twin brother, Christ. Christ is a fictitious character who plays the role of both story-teller and reality check. Christ often appears as an alter-ego, the shadow of Jesus; Christ is a weak and quiet person, in awe of his brother Jesus who is so charismatic and a natural born revolutionary. After being approached by a 'stranger', Christ is persuaded to write down and record the 'disturbances' that his brother appears to be causing through his preaching. So while Jesus is stirring up trouble with the authorities, Christ is in the background observing and writing reports for the stranger.

Giving Christ the status of Jesus' twin status gives Pullman, an atheist and humanist supporter, a handy device for providing a logical and rational explanation to some of Jesus' miracles, not least the resurrection, in which Christ is mistaken for, and assumed to be, Jesus when the tomb is found to be empty.

So why is Christ a scoundrel? He plays two significant roles – that of Satan when Jesus is in the desert, and that of Judas who betrays Jesus to the authorities. But there are also moments when Jesus' behaviour not as saintly as we might expect. For example, before his arrest in the Garden of Gethsemane he feels deserted by his god who never appears to listen to his prayers and expresses disillusionment. Jesus also treats his family quite harshly and abandons them in pursuit of his mission.

The re-telling came about when one of Pullman’s admirers, the Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, asked Pullman during a public debate why having tackled God he had neglected to write about the figure of Jesus. This version of the Gospel stories may appear to be unchristian but it is certainly not anti-Jesus. The main point of the re-telling emphasises the 'Christianity' of Jesus as a person vis-a-vis the corruption of the church. This is the paradox that Christ is able to manipulate for the reader. Christ believes he is doing the right thing when he betrays Jesus, following the strangers instructions, because in that way Jesus will be revered and will become the foundation of a new religion. However, at the end of the story we, and Christ, are faced with the reality that the stranger is as mortal and mercenary as the rest of us, and has no desire to promote the true voice of Jesus' word. Finally the 'Church' takes over the myth of Jesus and interprets the stories for its own ends – as did the stranger.    

I enjoyed this re-telling because it helps me to understand the times that Jesus lived in and to put the crucifixion into a historical context. I also liked the character of Christ because he displays 'normal' human emotions: fraternity, sibling jealousy, loyalty, gullibility, guilt and regret. I have never really got on the the Bible and the Gospels, but I found this re-telling not only a good story, but a very readable account of the life of Jesus.

Brazzaville Beach by WIlliam Boyd

BB is a novel about a woman called Hope. The story is divided into three narratives about her marriage, about academic competition in the field studying chimpanzees, and war.
  The stories are presented as a reflection from Hope’s point of view at BB, and we find out in leaps and meanders how she eventually ends up living on the beach. Her marriage to mathematician John, gradually declines ending in his madness and suicide. After his death she goes to work on a chimpanzee research station in Africa only to find that the research leader Eugene Mallabar can’t accept her discovery that the chimps are killing each other because it doesn’t fit into his long treasured thesis. This ends in a row where Eugene attacks Hope. As she flees to the nearest city she and a colleague Ian are caught in a road block and taken by soldiers into the bush. She eventually escapes, and is rescued by some Belgian mercenaries.
  There were some interesting juxtapositions in the book; the chimps’ aggression and cannibalism compared to the war. John’s area of study; chaos theory, turbulence, and catastrophe theory compared to the relationships of the scientists and others in the book.
  The narrative is not set out in chapters. Sequences from each story are punctuated with text in italics, in first or third person, put forward by Hope. These mainly cover scientific subjects including Fermat’s Last Theorem, The Inverse Cascade and so on. The point of these sections is not clear, other than to add some scientific kudos to the stories, and perhaps bringing to our attention that Hope is a scientist too. It was difficult to make connections with these pieces and what was happening in the narrative.
  The section about the kidnap and the war seemed to have no connection with the rest of the book and could have been cut without any loss to the remainder. It could be there to prompt a comparison between the war and the behaviour of the chimpanzees/scientists in the camp, but this is not clear.
  The part of the book we found most interesting was about the competitive academic environment that both John and Hope found themselves, where John pushes himself to destruction with the effort of finding the Clearwater Theory, and Hope finds her research rejected when it contradicts the theories of the long established team leader. Both situations do not end happily, John commits suicide and Hope is beaten and rejected from the research camp. Not a very happy reflection of academic circles.
  All in all everyone enjoyed the book. The characters were will drawn and interesting, we had a lot to say.

Air and Angels

'Air and Angels' set in Cambridge and India, at around (what appears to be) the end of the nineteenth century - a time of parasols, punting, tennis parties and tea on the lawn or verandah. Its title, we considered was a reference to the 'weather' that features on many occasions throughout the book in a powerful and very atmospheric way; from the searing heat of India to the rain and wind marauding across the bare Fens of East Anglia, Eustace walking through the chill, early morning mist to the spring sun shining on the buildings and bridges of Cambridge.
   Thomas Cavendish, in his middle fifties, a Cambridge Don of significant reputation lives a quiet, celibate and orderly life with his sister. Thomas, a keen bird enthusiast, enjoys his teaching and, at the end of the day, he is happy to return to his home with his purpose-built aviary adjoining his study. Georgiana, several years younger than Thomas, idolises her brother and for years has been content to housekeep for him and engage in good works. Her close friend, Florence, is desperate to marry Thomas. Florence, lives at home with her aged mother, fantasizes about being Thomas' wife and when she discovers that Thomas is in line for the Master's position at his college, she convinces herself that he will now definitely need a wife.
   Meanwhile, in India, Kitty, a cousin of Florence, aged fifteen years and on the verge of womanhood, decides she would like to spread her wings and go to England. Her heartbroken parents, only wanting the best for their daughter, arrange for Kitty to travel back to England with her governess. The plan is for her to live with Florence whilst she completes her education. On the trip she meets an elderly missionary with whom she developed a close and important relationship, someone in whom she could confide but who dies during the voyage.
   Sometime later, whilst walking along the river on a beautiful May afternoon, Thomas sees a young girl standing on a bridge and is transfixed, and when he sees her again in the company of Florence, he realizes the young woman who has had such an effect on him is Kitty. And before he knows it, has fallen deeply in love for the first time in his life. Confused/ by the depth of these feelings he compromises everything he has.
   There is a sense of melancholy, sacrifice and death/loss running through this book. Status plays a significant part in the characters of the India and Cambridge of the day. There seemed to be several flawed characters, unable to see how their behaviour and their unfulfilled ambitions cast shadows over their own and others lives at the same time believing they could assist others in theirs. At first reading there appeared to be several female characters whose roles were undeveloped but the discussion brought us to see that might be pointing to the relatively few options women had at this time; jobs such as maid, governess, house keeper for an elderly parent or sibling for the single female or for the married woman to follow and do whatever was necessary to fit into their husbands' lives. And just how important marriage was for women and their place in the world.
   The caged birds, so loved by Thomas felt to be a metaphor for the trapped lives they were leading; tied by convention, restricted by opportunities and confined by their own limitations. Thomas's transgression with Kitty whilst seemingly innocent resulted in the remainder of his life being lived out in a suspended way in Cambridge where people seemed to forgive but not forget and from which his reputation would never recover, whilst we can only speculate on what impact it had on the remainder of her life.

A Perfectly Good Man

This month's book was "A Perfectly Good Man" by Patrick Gale. It is the story of Barnaby Johnson, a Cornish parish priest, and spans his life from aged 8 to late middle age. It is written in a series of chapters from the point of view of different characters: Barnaby, his wife, his children, his lover, and the son he has by his lover. Gale is such a clever writer - the chapters jump back and forth in time, in no apparent order, and the reader is kept wondering how all the twists and turns will be reconciled. However, all the loose ends are neatly tidied away most satisfactorily at the end.

  The story opens with the suicide of Lenny, who has been crippled in an accident on the rugby field. He decides at aged 20 that he wishes to commit suicide. He obtains the necessary drugs, and asks to Barnaby to go and see him at the time he plans to take the drugs, so that he has a witness. Spoiler alert coming up! Lennie does not know that Barnaby is his father, and nor does the reader till much later in the book. The book is the back story of Barnaby and Lennie.
  Another contributing character is the extremely unpleasant Modest Carlsson, a second-hand book seller and dealer in pornography. He meets Barnaby when the latter is a young curate, and becomes obsessed with him to the extent that he follows him to Cornwall. He is the complete antithesis to the 'perfectly good man' that Barnaby is.
  I think the characterisations are marvellous, all the characters seem to leap off the page, well rounded and quite believable. We all liked Barnaby, though one or two of our readers responded to him in the same way as does his adopted Vietnamese boat-boy son, Phuc or Jim, finding him too diffident, and wishing he would be less accepting of everything, even the awful Modest. He is even asked by an uncle at aged 8, 'Please don't feel you always have to be good. Sometimes you are so good it hurts to watch you.'
  Being set in Cornwall, the cake was Cornish heavy cake, which is actually mentioned in the book. Probably the fault of the cook, but it was possibly the most boring cake ever made, though the birds enjoyed it very much!

Three Cups of Tea

In Three Cups of Tea: One Man’s Mission to Promote Peace . . . One School at a Time , Greg Mortenson, and journalist David Oliver Relin, recount the journey that led Mortenson from a failed 1993 attempt to climb Pakistan’s K2, the world’s second highest mountain, to successfully establish schools in some of the most remote regions of Afghanistan and Pakistan. Views of the group were mixed and there was some debate about whether it is such an inspiring story in the light of facts discovered about Mortenson after publication: facts that suggest his so called adventure wasn’t quite as altruistic as it seemed. In 1993 Mortenson was descending from a failed attempt to reach the peak of K2 when he wandered away from his group, got lost and subsequently into an impoverished Pakistani village where he was nursed back to health. The village was so poor that it could not afford the $1-a-day salary to hire a teacher so, grateful the villagers had saved his life, when he left the village he promised that he would return to build them a school. And the book is the story of how he did it. The difficult process of getting funding, his armed kidnapping, fatwas issued by mullahs, repeated death threats and separation from his wife and family. He built the Braldu Bridge, the Korphe School and since then has established 78 schools. An apparently astounding story of success in the face of hardship and opposition. The bridge and the schools do exist but the story behind them could be quite different.
               There are alleged inaccuracies in the story as well as financial improprieties in the operation of the Central Asia Institute. Also in dispute is Mortenson's claim that he got lost near K2 and ended up in Korphe; that he was captured by the Taliban in 1996; whether the number of schools built and supported by CAI is accurate; and the propriety in the use of CAI funds for Mortenson's book tours. Despite the controversy there were those of us who found it an uplifting read and thought there should be some recognition of the fact that there are now schools where there weren’t before. However, balanced against this was argument about the purpose of the schools and the kind of education being offered in them. Simply constructing schools is not enough. What kind of identity is being constructed in the process of schooling, which role models are being presented, what outlooks of the world and sense of purpose in life are being imparted. A particularly strong message in the book is to build schools before madrassas get them and so turn students into "Good Muslims" (defined as modern, progressive, tolerant and pro-West) and remove their misunderstandings and apparent ignorance about America – which is characteristic of "Bad Muslims" (defined in the dominant cultural discourse as backward, fundamentalist, violent and anti-West).
            It was a reasonably easy read although generally agreed that parts could have been left out to move the narrative on a bit faster.

The Sense of an Ending - Julian Barnes

A lively discussion ensued after reading this book, and although we ended the evening agreeing to differ, we all agreed we enjoyed the discussion!

Some felt they could connect with the early part of this book, the glimpses into the school life of a group of young men growing up in the sixties with no experience of relationships with girls, and the in jokes and insecurities that prevail.
  As the book develops through the eye of the narrator, Tony, there was a feeling from some that there was not enough development of character and story, that the sparse anecdotal style was not enough to maintain interest. Others felt that this was an honest depiction of how memories are laid down and recollected, and how the recording of history “accurately” is necessarily flawed and subjective.
We all expressed some irritation (as a group of women at a certain age!) with the narrator’s lack of emotional intelligence, and agreed that he was not particularly likeable, but at the same time his honesty  was disarming.
  The book takes on a new energy with the advent of the legacy from Tony’s erstwhile girlfriend’s mother, and the mysterious circumstances surrounding this prompted an interesting divergence of opinion within the group. Theories as to why the legacy was left to Tony, what may have prompted the suicide of Adrian, the “too clever” and intense member of the friendship group, took us well into cake-and-coffee time. One of us expressed that she didn’t care enough about the characters, who were all so unpleasant, to hypothesise at all!
  Others of us could identify with the angst ridden feelings evoked particularly in the early part of the book, vividly expressed. Whereas the gaps and lack of background narrative irritated some but engaged others in our group, the outcome was an interesting debate about how we remembered our own history, many of us recalling different experiences of a similar era , how we might have recorded it then and with hindsight now.
  As the chooser of this book, I agree very much with the opinion that this is a book that changes on re-reading, and that having read it again my empathy with the characters changed. Julian Barnes economy of style and lack of description made me experience his “snapshot” characterisations from different perspectives, which I found both stimulating and salutory. It is one of those books that has, for me, a lasting impact on how I consider both personal recollections and received historical accounts.

Xmas 2012

On the evening of Tuesday 11th December 2012 the Newland book club met for the book club “Bring & Share” Christmas dinner. Better late than never we thought - the brief was to read something written by a woman that would be appropriate for the time of the year.
This evening was marked by the excellence of the food (of which there was more than sufficient), the seasonal appropriateness of the readings given by each of the club members and the liveliness of the conversation.

Bridget Jones Diary - Christmas Day

Extract from Edna O'Brien - Mother Ireland

Simone de Beauvoir's Memoirs of a Dutiful Daughter

George Elliot - Silas Marner

Cranford = Mrs Gaskell

Katherine Swift - The Morville Hours

The evening was deemed a huge success by all and proved yet once again that the members of the Newland book club know how to enjoy themselves.

The menu

• canapés (chicken liver pate, smoked salmon blinis, tomato, basil & mozzarella, melon balls).

• pistachio soup.
• trout in vermouth with tomatoes and almonds.
• partridge stuffed with chantrelles & smoked French sausage.
• carrots, brussells, pomme dauphinoise and roasted beetroot & sour cream.
• cinnamon parfait with orange segmets in orange blossom sauce and a ganache filled sponge.
• a wonderful selection of petit four (the pretty daisy decorated chocolate brownies were a triumph).
• a variety of cheeses, grapes and crackers.

Raymond Chandler

For a change instead of all reading the same novel we could choose one of his 7. We watched the 1946 film of The Big Sleep with Lauren Bacall and Humphrey Bogart which did indeed put someone to sleep and some of us were very confused as to what was going on. There are at least 6 deaths and the linkage between each is at times rather tenuous.
  Unfortunately because the film was in black and white the colours Chandler so carefuly describes lost out. The film also changed a rather crucial point of the story - that of the relationship of the missing Rusty Regan to General Sternwood's daughter Vivian. She was somehow married to a Mr Routledge and Rusty's name was changed to Sean. Perhaps due to the Hollywood Code or some sensibilities now lost in the mist of time the fact that Geiger was a dealer in pornography, took photos of the naked Carmen Sternwood, and was gay was all ignored. No wonder those who had not read the book wondered what on earth all the killing was about.
  We discussed Chandler's style in some depth. His sense of colour, his humour and his almost obsessive use of figures of speech particularly similes. Brought up to believe that short sentences with a minimum Fogg Factor are the easiest to read and comprehend Chandler is a master of this. His one-liners and his imagary are timeless and would be wonderful examples for school children - to encourage them to think in unusual ways. Between us we had read most of his novels (the person who went to sleep hadn't read any!) so we were able to compare his work written over a period of 20 years from 1939 to his final book Playback in 1958 shortly before he died. Much seems autobiographical - the outsider, the loner, the drinker and the man always a little detached from the mainstream - both Marlowe and Chandler.
  Many reviewers describe the novels as 'hard-boiled detective'  but I didn't recognise this - in fact they seemed rather tame in some ways but that is comparing them to today's works. Marlowe is honourable, honest and does not 'go it alone' but soon brings in the 'Law'. The books also set scenes of gambling, deceit, blackmail and contract killings and the dark underbelly of the rich in California, and of course of the times in which they are written - between 1939 and 1958 the world changed a lot particularly in the US where war was but a dot on a ladybird's back. (that's a very poor attempt isn't it).
  I would recommend reading one of the novels if only for the astonishing imagery - take the man who's neck was like a celery stalk or the fakeness of the usherette's eyelashes - could you think of that? I certainly couldn't.