My apologies for my absence last week – I had plans for spending a lot of time over Memorial weekend reading and writing. However, I was a slug instead recovering from all the complications of life and a three day cooking spree preparing vegetarian food for youngest and his friends to take to the Sasquatch Music Festival. This weekend has been spent prepping to take Youngest back to Portland and down to Salem to spend more time with my mom. It is her book group week and I will be able to attend both which pleases me as I really like the ladies of her two groups. As for reading, I finished The Forrests by Emily Perkins and will be looking to read more of her work. I have also started Skylark by Dezső Kosztolányi which comes highly recommended.
Here is what caught my interest the last two weeks:
Iris on Books has a review of Charlotte Temple by Susana Rowson, an early novel (1790). I have never heard of this book so I did some research. Wikipedia calls the novel, “the most popular best seller in American Literature until Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin was published in 1852.” It was first published in America in 1794 and has gone through over 200 editions. Charlotte Temple is a traditional cautionary tale with Charlotte manipulated into leaving England and having a relationship with a British solider without the benefit of marriage and her subsequent downfall . While this style of book may seem old-fashioned and dated to most readers, Iris mentions that scattered throughout the novel, there is a more liberal attitude which peaks through. This looks like it might be fun to read sometime.
I am not sure which blogger told me about Kevin Haworth, but I am grateful all the same. Haworth, a professor and author, has written two non-fiction books and The Discontinuity of Small Things is his first work of fiction. First I love the title and I am intrigued about a slightly different look at the Holocaust. Set in Nazi occupied Denmark, the novel follows a handful of different people and their actions, reactions, and non-actions as small event after small event build as Denmark struggles to balance its safety as a nation and the safety of its Jewish citizens.
If you are in the mood for a quiet novel, Ali of Heaven Ali, reviews William Trevor’s 2009 novel Love and Summer. This is another novel where it seems “little things loom large”. Set in 1950’s rural Ireland an married woman and an unmarried man embark on a relationship – both feel alone, both feel like outsiders in their small community. This is noticed by a lonely middle-aged spinster with a past of her own who wants to protect the woman from hurt. I really enjoyed the quote Ali placed in the review as well as the opening section (posted on Amazon) so I think this one will go on the list.
I found two reviews of The Dinner by Herman Koch, one by Leeswammes Blog and the other by Bibliophile by the Sea. The Dinner starts out innocently enough, on a warm summer’s evening in Amsterdam two couples (brothers and their wives) meet for dinner. One brother is a successful politician, the other has always felt like he lived under his brother’s shadow. The evening starts out all civility and manners and everyday chit-chat. But underneath the surface, lurks a more serious topic involving each couple’s fifteen year old son. This sounds like it might be a good book for book groups.
Finally, Stuck in a Book has a wonderful list of books published in the 1920’s just in cast you need to wallow in the decade beyond seeing The Great Gatsby in the theater.
Happy Reading!
Thank you for linking to my post 🙂 Overall, Charlotte Temple is very much your usual moral tale, but I did think that there were moments when the author asks for a little more sympathy and a little less strictness before resuming “the usual” story.
And I would agree that The Dinner provides an excellent book group read. I recently read it for my Dutch Lit Fortnight and I’m still thinking about it, even if I’m not sure if that’s in a positive or negative way.
What a good mom cooking special foods for your son and buddies:) Hope you get some free time for you. Loved…The Dinner – thanks for mentioning it.