Bosnian Chronicle by Ivo Andric

This is my 3rd book for the classic challenge. This is a book and author I was totally unfamiliar with but found very intriguing. It's not a true classic in the sense that it's not 19th century but I'm using my discretionary powers. Ivo Andric is a well-known Yugoslavian writer and before WWII served in the government and diplomatic corps. When Germany invaded Yugoslavia, he lived under house arrest in Belgrade and it was during this time that he wrote the trilogy to which Bosnian Chronicle belongs. The other 2 titles are The Bridge on the Drina and Miss. The 3 books were published in 1945 and made Andric a dominant figure in Yugoslav literature. In 1961, Andric was awarded the Nobel Prize for portraying the humanity and history of his country.

This book is set in Bosnia while still under Ottoman rule and during the Napoleonic era. It's told from the point of view of many characters but primarily from the point of view of the French Consul at that time posted in Travnik ( Andric's birthplace). It's thought that Andric gained access, in Paris, to the actual letters written by the French Consul to his superiors and became inspired to write this story. So the book might revolve around the French Consul but it also delves into the stories of the Austrian Consul, the reigningVizier, the various groups, ethnic and/or religious that constitute the people of Bosnia, as well as the Court of the Sultan. It's not a pretty story because there's many contending forces and people cannot or refuse to have much understanding of each other. Overlaid on this examination of Bosnian society or underpinning it is the difficult history of this part of the world. It has been a geographic crossroads of East and West and has suffered tremendous upheaval and violence as a result. That seems to be (and many reviewers agree) the point of the novel. I think the modern coming apart of Yugoslavia illustrates this very point; that this an area which has been ground down over a millenium and yet the people have endured. This endurance has sometimes come at a high price but you could say that about a lot of situations.

I found the writing straightforward and yet lyrical. The author has great feeling for the land itself as well as the people who inhabit the land. He also has a great feel for the out of place, the foreign, even the misfit, and how they suffer and gradually adapt to their surroundings even to the point of being unaware of their adaptation. The book spans the time of the arrival of the French Consul to the leaving of the French Consul, about 7 years. During that time, there's great changes in Europe but in Travnik things are more circular than linear and maybe that's the point. What looks like linear change, i.e. moving into the future in France, is more of the same in Travnik. Let's hope that the countries that constituted Yugoslavia can finally put the past behind them and move into a brighter future.

The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky

This has been on my reading list for some time and I've finally been able to finish it as book 2 for the Classic Challenge. It's been difficult in the past to get through the first 150 pages but I found a different translation and I think that made it easier to read. The Brothers Karamazov is a deeply psychological novel and very modern for that reason. The brothers are 3 brothers, the older is a half-brother, sons of a neglectful father. The father Karamazov is what we might call in modern psychological terms a narcissist. He's concerned only with himself and pleasure. The elder son, Dimitri, is a lot like him but still capable of feelings for other people. The second son Ivan is closed off emotionally, highly intelligent, a man of reason. The youngest son Alyosha, is deeply spiritual and kind. He follows the teachings of a mystic monk and tries his best to help whenever possible. The author viewed Alyosha as the hero of the book. The story unfolds around a love triangle between Dimitri, his father, and a beautiful but troubled woman Grushenka. Within this story of sexual jealousy and male competition, Dostoevsky explores the themes most important to him i.e. the existence of God, man's belief or non belief in God. the nature of human suffering, punishment, and redemption. In other words, he covers a lot of ground! About halfway through the book, the father Karmazov is murdered and a large amount of money is stolen. The rest of the book continues with it's fundamental themes but now it is also a murder mystery and a courtroom drama. I think what makes the book so powerful besides it's concern with fundamental questions of existence, is the exploration of the human heart. Dostoevsky is so good at showing how good and bad impulses exist side by side in human beings. Ultimately, his answer is that good cannot triumph without faith and of course that's something that continues to be debated as society tries to chart a secular path with it's ups and downs. This is definitely a book with a lot of ideas, I recommend it.

Raise the Red Lantern, Three Novellas, by Su Tong

This is a collection of stories by Su Tong, a well-known contemporary Chinese writer. The most famous story of the collection is Raise the Red Lantern because a very popular film was made from it starring Gong Li and directed by Zhang Yimou. The stories, novellas really, are based in the time of Republican China to the time of the revolution (1949). Raise the Red Lantern is the story of a young, educated woman who falls on hard times and ends up as the 4th concubine of an older wealthy man. The story is different from the movie and I thought the story better in some ways but other reviews I've read thought the movie superior. The four paramours of the master vie for his attention and through that attention, material gains as well as power within their small and claustrophobic world. It truly is a condemnation of all the worst aspects of women's oppression under a feudal or semi-feudal system. The other 2 novellls concern life in a small, seemingly unchanging village somewhere in the southern part of China. 1934 Escapes concerns a family history of cruelty and abandonment against a background of poverty, famine, disease, and repression. In many respects, what's being described is what millions of people have experienced as serfs, slaves. or peasants of a despised class. I think 1934 Escapes and the next novella Opium Family both describe the internal and external subjugation of entire peoples and the great difficulty in changing it in any profound way. 1934 Escapes is written more from the POV of the peasant family, Opium Family is from the POV of the landlord family. Su Tong destroys both in the end or he lets them destroy themselves. The author has been described as dabbling in a bit of magical realism ala Latin American fiction and I can see that as an element. But, there is also a strong Chinese literary legacy of ghosts, haunting, and fate that's very evident in all three of the stories. Overall, I found them fascinating and repulsive. There's really no one to like or identify with but the reader is forced to confront human behavior in all its' varied presentations. I think, and I've read this in other reviews that's Su Tong is overly negative but I can kind of see his point. His writing is an outpouring of poison in a way i.e. draining a wound to heal.

Book List 2009

The Thief by Megan Whalen Turner
Dream of Orchids by Phyllis A. Whitney
The Good Dog by Avi
Chasing Vermeer by Blue Baillet
Murder in the Latin Quarter by Cara Black
The Stone Bull by Phyllis Whitney
Shelter Dogs by Peg Kehret
Lord of the Ring by JRR Tolkien
Parallel Lives by Phyllis Rose
The Death of Woman Wang by Jonathan D. Spence
The Gallows Murders by Michael Clynes
The Haunted Looking Glass, Ghost Stories Chosen By Edward Gorey
Small Steps by Peg Kehret
The House of the Seven Gables by Nathaniel Hawthorne
Genghis Bones of the Hills by Conn Iggulden
A Certain Justice by P.D. James
Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry by Mildred Taylor
Far from the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy
Let It Bleed by Ian Rankin
Blood Hunt by Ian Rankin
Stone Fox by John Reynolds Gardiner
The Falls by Ian Rankin
The Private Patient by P.D. James
Voice of the Violin by Andrea Camilleri
Fingersmith by Sarah Waters
Dead Souls by Nikolai Gogol
Exit Music by Ian Rankin
Tyrannosaur Canyon by Douglas Preston
Number the Stars by Lois Lowry
Suite Francaise by Irene Nemirovsky
Deep and Dark and Dangerous by Mary Downing Hahn
The Hobbit by JRR Tolkien
A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
Yellow Star by Jennifer Roy
The Long Goodbye by Raymond Chandler
The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexander Dumas
The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver
The Yiddish Policemen's Union by Michael Chabon
Loot and other stories by Nadine Gordimer
The Final Solution by Michael Chabon
The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman
The Stolen Child by Keith Donohue
The Birthday Present by Barbara Vine
Sarah's Key by Tatiana de Rosnay
Cranford by Mrs. Gaskell
The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle by Avi
The Tortilla Curtain by T.C. Boyle
The Rendezvous and Other Stories by Daphne DuMaurier
March by Geraldine Brooks
Falling Slowly by Anita Brookner
Never Change by Elizabeth Berg
A Dog's Life by Ann M. Martin
The Virgin Blue by Tracy Chevalier
Girl With A Pearl Earring by Tracy Chevalier
Lords of the North by Bernard Cornwell
Leaving Home by Anita Brookner
The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova
The Poyson Garden by Karen Harper
Snow by Orhan Pamuk
The Castle in the Attic by Elizabeth Winthrop
The Catalans by Patrick O'Brian
Lord Peter Views the Body by Dorothy Sayers
Gaudy Night by Dorothy Sayers
Alfred & Emily by Doris Lessing
The Heretic's Daughter by Kathleen Kent
The Book without Words by AVI
The Penderwicks by Jeanne Birdsall
The Boys Start The War by Phylllis Naylor
Something Rotten by Jasper FForde
Peony in Love by Lisa See
Total 70 Books

Book List 2008

The Cherry Orchard by Anton Chekhov
Disgrace by J.M. Coetzee
The Chinese Lake Murders by Robert Van Gulik
Diamond of Darkhold by Jeanne DuPrau
City of Ember by Jeanne DuPrau
The Sea, The Sea by Iris Murdoch
War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
Dear Mr. Henshaw by Beverly Cleary
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
The Secret Scripture by Sebastian Barry
The Lady and the Unicorn by Tracy Chevalier
Guilty Pleasures by Laurell K. Hamilton
The Unicorn by Iris Murdoch
The Alchemist by Paul Coelho
Dancing Bear by James Crumley
The Pale Horseman by Bernard Cornwell
The Mermaid Chair by Sue Monk Kidd
Les Miserables by Victory Hugo
Tides of War by Steven Pressfield
The Lost World of Quintana Roo by Michael Peissel
Catherine the Great by Henri Troyat
Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin
Augustus by Anthony Everitt
Break No Bones by Kathy Reichs
The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield
The Pearl by Douglas Smith
The Translation of Dr. Apelles by David Treuer
The Golden Bowl by Henry James
Bleak House by Charles Dickens
Ivanhoe by Walter Scott
The Painter of Battles by Arturo Perez-Reverte
My Life as a Fake by Peter Carey
Merlin by Jane Yolan
Shakespeare's Wife by Germaine Greer
Hobby by Jane Yolan
Passager by Jane Yolan
Him,Her,Him Again, the End of Him by Patricia Marx
The Secret of Lost Things by Sheridan Hay
Jane Boleyn by Julia Fox
Here Be Dragons by Sharon Kay Penman
Time and Chance by Sharon Kay Penman
Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafan
Love in the Driest Season by Neely Tucker
The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje
Epic of Gilgamesh
The Western Canon by Harold Bloom
Portrait of a Lady by Henry James
Soldiers of Salamis by Javier Cercas
Total 48 Books

Classic Challenge Wrap-Up

This is my wrap-up for the Classics Challeng II.
My books are, Count of Monte Cristo
Tale of Two Cities
Far From the Madding Crowd
Dead Souls
The House of the Seven Gables
The Long Goodby (new classic)
I enjoyed the process and again had to modify my list so The Brothers Karamazov will have to wait for another time. Thanks to all who participated and to Tricia for hosting.

The House of the Seven Gables by Nathaniel Hawthorne

This is such a classic of American literature and yet I couldn't remember if I had ever read it! It's a little bit of a mystery in the gothic style although Hawthorne prefers to call it a romance in that allows him wider powers to indulge in his imagination. The story, of course, centers around the dark, dismal, and decaying ancestral home of the Pyncheons, The House of the Seven Gables. The founder of the family, as we come to find out, has swindled a Matthew Maule out of the property the house was built on and then been instrumental in having Maule sentenced to death for witchcraft. As Maule dies he curses the family and says "God will give him blood to drink!" As we take up the story, the House is occupied by Hepzibeh and her brother Matthew. Both are old before their time and live oppressive restricted lives in the House. There is a tragedy hanging over Matthew that is not fully revealed until the end of the tale. Even though the tale is dark, it has moments of wit and humor and is also lightened with descriptions of everyday life going on around the dreaded House. Enter Phoebe, a young cousin, beautiful, kind, and light-hearted who soon becomes indispensable to the older pair. There is another tenant, a young comely man, who lives in one of the gables and is a daguerreotypist (a portrait artist). Later, we find he is a descendant of Matthew Maule and has the Maule family's gift of mesmerism. Hence, perhaps part of the witchcraft problem the plagued his ancestor. Another important character is Judge Pyncheon, a cousin and contemporary of Hepzibeh and Matthew and whom it turns out has perpetrated a vile crime on Matthew. I won't reveal the whole plot because it is rather interesting and not fully developed until the end of the book. Suffice it to say that in the end justice is served to some degree and the two families are joined together through Phoebe and the daguerreotypist called Holgrave. An interesting aside is that Hawthorne's ancestor John Hathorne was a judge in the Salem with trials of 1692. I enjoyed the book and was surprised at some of the humor and sly asides as well as the accessibility of the writing. It's not as tragic as The Scarlett Letter but deals with some of the same themes, duplicity, guilt, and redemption. I recommend it particularly at this Halloween time.