Notes and reflections on reading.
I first heard of David Grann when he was a guest on Paul Giamatti’s and Stephen Asma’s podcast, Chinwag. At that time, Grann had just come out with a book of essays called The Devil and Sherlock Holmes, which I read and enjoyed in 2024. Grann is also the notable author of the book that Scorcese’s award-winning film Killers of the Flower Moon is based on. The Wager, which I’ve begun reading, and am in the grip of, is about...
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“Josephine the Singer, or the Mouse Folk” is a poignant short story by Franz Kafka that centers on Josephine, a mouse celebrated for her singing talent. Within the community of the Mouse Folk, her performances are seen as a source of joy and unity, yet they also reveal deeper themes of identity, art, and existential struggle. The story is narrated by another mouse, who reflects on Josephine’s significance within their society. He admires her talent but also feels compelled to...
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The Guide follows the life of Raju, a charming and ambitious young man who starts as a tour guide in the fictional town of Malgudi (Narayan has written many stories set in Malgudi). Raju’s life takes a turn when he meets Rosie, a talented dancer married to the wealthy but neglectful archaeologist, whom Raju gives the name Marco after a well-known adventurer. Captivated by her passion and beauty, Raju becomes romantically involved with Rosie, leading to her decision to leave...
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Malgudi Days by R.K. Narayan as translated by Jhumpa Lahiri. I’m going to take Lahiri’s advice in the book’s introduction and read one story per day for a month. So begins my reading in 2025. —♦——♦——♦— These short parables are somewhat like Aesop’s, though sometimes the lesson isn’t as clear, yet the predicaments people find themselves in are always unique. In “Engine Trouble,” a poor fellow spends a few annas on a lottery drawing at a carnival. He ends up...
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The pretentiousness of the contemporary art world is just one of the targets in Michel Houellebecq’s The Map and the Territory. The protagonist, Jed Martin, is a talented painter and photographer who rises to fame in the art world, which he is largely indifferent to. He initially gains recognition for his artistic yet simple photographs of everyday objects. One day, he looks at a Michelin map and finds beauty in it. At an early exhibition of his works, he includes...
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Milan Kundera’s The Festival of Insignificance centers around four main characters: Alain, a laid-back and somewhat indifferent man; his friend Ramon, a lively and passionate individual; the enigmatic and beautiful Clara; and the reflective and thoughtful character, the narrator, who reflects on the nature of their lives and relationships. Set against the backdrop of Paris, the characters navigate their day-to-day experiences, grappling with the superficiality and fleeting nature of modern life. Kundera introduces the notion of insignificance as a central...
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By Uruguayan writer Eduardo Galeano and published posthumously, Hunter of Stories offers glimpses into hidden histories, mythologies, and the untold crimes inflicted on indigenous peoples by European explorers and later by large nation-states seeking to exploit the natural resources and workers. Galeano’s idealism comes through even as he retells hard histories in one- or two-page-long chapters. As he notes in one of the stories, “Why not write the big story of the past by telling the little one?” Two samples,...
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The Open Veins of Latin America: Five Centuries of the Pillage of a Continent by Eduardo Galeano is a seminal work that examines the historical and socio-economic exploitation of Latin America. First published in 1971, it combines history, economics, and personal narrative to provide a critical perspective on the continent’s colonial and post-colonial experiences. Historical Context Galeano begins with the arrival of Christopher Columbus in 1492, marking the start of a relentless exploitation of Latin America’s resources. He details how...
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Hernan Diaz’s novel Trust intricately weaves multiple narratives to explore themes of wealth, power, and the nature of truth. A tale that revolves around a wealthy financier, Benjamin Rask, and his enigmatic wife, Helen. The novel is structured in four parts: two contrasting narratives about Benjamin and Helen, a fictional biography, and an account of their financial dealings. As the characters’ perspectives unfold, the reader encounters differing accounts of their lives and relationships, prompting questions about the reliability of storytelling...
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I can read a Portis novel, come to the end, turn back to page one, and start right over. Two reasons: he often has ambiguous endings, and his writing is magnetic. Also, there are characters I want to revisit before bidding them farewell. Ray Midge, a bean counter in Arkansas, is our leading man and narrator. One day, his wife leaves him for Guy Dupree, but what’s worse is that she takes his car. Seems that in this book, or...
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“Clay” is one of the short stories found in Joyce’s collection The Dubliners . In “Clay” Joyce captures multiple levels of class and religious stratification along with alcoholism and hidden cruelties enmeshed in the culture in a handful of pages with incredible economy. Our protagonist, Maria, a servant working at Dublin by Lamplight Laundry, The laundry work reminded me of Small Things Like These , but with Protestants running the business. We learn that prior to her job at the...
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Saying too much here would definitely introduce spoilers, so I’ll limit my comments to the following bullet points: A few more characters than in The Martian Protagonist is an 8th grade science teacher who had been thrown out of university academia for writing a paper going against The Goldilocks Principle (organic life requires water) The sun is dimming for some reason, threatening life with mass starvation and multiple species extinction Nations decide to work collaboratively on a solution, with an...
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This is Elena Ferrante’s first book in the Neapolitan Novels series. It follows the intense friendship between two girls, Elena Greco and Raffaella “Lila” Cerullo, growing up in a poor neighborhood in post-war Naples. The novel explores themes of identity, class, and the complexities of female friendship. As the girls navigate their lives, their paths diverge: Elena pursues education and a more conventional life, while Lila’s fierce intelligence and rebellious spirit lead her to reject societal norms. The story delves...
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Initial thoughts on just beginning to read this brief work: I’ve never read William H. Gass and somehow confused him with German writer and Nobel laureate Günter Grass. Perhaps this confusion emerged when I picked up Gass’s Tunnell at the library one day and it seemed to be about World War II. Regardless, I began reading this narrated piece by a lonely man stuck in small-town Indiana; he is filled with acerbic descriptions of a world fading away, but who...
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The Devil & Sherlock Holmes: Tales of Murder, Madness & Obsession is a collection of essays by David Grann, who known for writing Killers of the Flower Moon . They are all true tales (some solved, others less so), and the featured essay is my favorite, as I’ve been a fan of the great detective from a young age. Watched all the PBS episodes with my family and when they were only part way through, borrowed my father’s collection of...
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Ms Ice Sandwich by Mieko Kawakami is a brief but oddly engaging novel narrated by a grammar school student who is enchanted by a woman working at the sandwich counter at a grocery store he passes every day. He is struck dumb by Ms Ice Sandwich’s large eyes and electric blue eyeliner. Every day during the course of a summer he enters the store, waits on a short queue and orders a sandwich, which she nabs with steel tongs and...
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George Saunders published Pastoralia in 2000. The collection consists of six stories, each exploring themes of consumerism, capitalism, and the complexities of human relationships. Set in a theme park, the title story “Pastoralia” is a darkly comedic satire. Employees live and act like prehistoric cave dwellers. The protagonist, a man known as “the cave man,” struggles to maintain a sense of dignity and purpose. In the real world, we learn the cave man has a wife and they have a...
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Cormac McCarthy’s final novel pairs with The Passenger . It is a dialogue between Bobby Western’s sister, Alice, and her psychiatrist. The “action” takes place at a rehab facility named Stella Maris (Star of Mary in Latin). The dialogue becomes listless and bogged down in various philosophical and mathematical issues quickly. Alice or Alicia (she changed her name at one point) has picked up and wrestled with these issues into oblivion. Literally to the point that she began experiencing hallucinations,...
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The Passenger by Cormac McCarthy starts out with a mysterious private jet crash. The novel’s protagonist, Bobby Western, leads a salvage dive to it that turns up no survivors. The salvage team had to use a torch to get into the jet and things are oddly missing: the black box and the captain’s bag. How were they removed? A day later Bobby is approached by what appear to be two federal agents. What did he find? Did he remove anything?...
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Nella Larsen external link wrote the novella Passing in 1929. The story revolves around the friendship of Irene ('Rene) Redfield, whose point of view carries the story, and Clare Kendry. Both are married. Irene to a darker skinned Black man who is a Physician in Manhattan. Clare to a racist white businessman who doesn’t know she is actually a light skin Black woman ‘passing’ as white. Both 'Rene and Clare can pass as white. Both women use 'passing' for certain...
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The Thursday Murder Club is a best-selling detective novel by Richard Ossman. It is about a group of British pensioners living in a retirement village. They spend Thursdays solving old mysteries for enjoyment. One day, a real murder case turns up for them to solve involving a land deal and someone digging up graveyards.
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The Captive Mind by Czesław Miłosz external link . Essays out of central Europe during the First Cold War by one of Poland’s leading intellectuals. The Captive Mind is divided into four parts. Each part examines a different mindset adopted by intellectuals in response to the oppressive political environment. Miłosz analyzes the impact of communist ideology on the human psyche. He delves into how intellectuals compromised their beliefs, suppressed their individuality, and conformed to the demands of the ruling regimes....
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Zamyatin’s little-known dystopian novel We influenced Ayn Rand, George Orwell external link , and Aldous Huxley, and unlike them, he had no model. Zamyatin wrote We in 1921. The Benefactor, the one ruler, assigns numbers to citizens. Society uses pure mathematics as a religion. So the novel has the influence of the Logical Positivism of the day. The novel refers to groups and individuals as “ciphers” or “unifs.” The novel is a series of journal entries by engineer I-503. He...
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Effi Briest is a novel written by Theodor Fontane and published in 1895. Set in 19th-century Germany, the story follows the life of Effi Briest, a young woman who enters into a socially advantageous but ultimately troubled marriage. Effi Briest, at the age of 17, marries Baron Geert von Innstetten, a much older and respected man who holds a high position in the Prussian government. The marriage is arranged by Effi’s parents for financial and social reasons. Initially, Effi is...
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A Polish pianist with an unpronounceable last name (let’s call him W) comes to give a recital in Barcelona. The usual well-heeled arts volunteers, including one Beatriz, arranged the recital. Beatriz, whose name immediately resonates with Dante’s muse, Beatrice, will find herself in similar circumstances but will turn the tables before all is said. We soon learn W is in his 70s and Beatriz is in her early 50s. They are to meet with another couple following the recital but...
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Convenience Store Woman is a novel written by Sayaka Murata and published in 2016. The story revolves around Keiko Furukura, a socially awkward woman who has worked at the same convenience store for 18 years. Keiko feels a deep sense of belonging and identity within the structured and predictable environment of the convenience store. She has dedicated herself to following the store’s rules and mimicking the behavior of her co-workers. She strives to be a “normal” person in society’s eyes....
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The Nickel Boys is a chilling novel based on a true story, which begins with hope and ends in tragedy. Racial profiling and profiteering on the part of a reform school (Nickel School, based in Florida) and its administrator sets the plot in motion. Medieval corporal punishments for minor infractions sharpened the cruelty experienced by the students. An unfortunate favor one student tries to do for his friend puts the final period in his sentence. Studious, hard-working Elwood is done...
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“My Cheesecake Shaped Poverty” is a Murakami short story that first appeared in The New Yorker ( my-cheesecake-shaped-poverty.pdf ). This very short story is part of The New Yorker’s flash fiction series, so it’s unlikely it is more than 1000 words. The time is 1973. A young newlywed couple desires to move into their first home. They don’t have much money, so the estate agent looks them up and down and hesitantly takes them to the “Triangle Zone” property. It...
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The Bear follows a young boy named Isaac McCaslin, who goes on numerous hunting trips into the wilderness with his uncle and other men. During these excursions, they come across a bear named Old Ben who has been killing and eating livestock from local farms. The men are determined to hunt down and kill Old Ben. Over many years and hunting trips, different members of the group try and fail to kill the formidable Old Ben, who proves to be...
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Vincent is a bartender at the Glass Hotel, or as it’s first called, Hotel Caiette. It’s a five-star lodging on the northernmost tip of Vancouver Island. On the night she meets Alkaitis, a hooded figure scrawls a message on the lobby’s glass wall. It reads “ Why don’t you swallow broken glass ?” Alkaitis’s billion-dollar hedge fund empire is nothing more than smoke and mirrors. When his scheme collapses, it obliterates countless fortunes and devastates lives (like a Madoff external...
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