Ivan the Sad

The Death of Ivan Ilyich by Leo Tolstoy

This book was an incredible story of a man grappling with his own death - up close and personally. Ivan is your average middle income husband with two children working for the Ministry of Justice. He slips one day while hanging drapes in his new home and comes down with a mysterious illness that slowly and painfully kills him. I know what you're thinking - depressing! Well, it was depressing, but it was also an interesting look at death. The book itself is really short (106 pages) and I can't help, but think that it's a lure to try to get the common people to delve into Tolstoy's longer books, Anna Karenina or War and Peace (each over 800 pages). The Death of Ivan Ilyich deals mostly with the often messy and secular aspects of death. Ivan spends many hours contemplating "What is it all for?", "Why is this happening to me?" and pondering what he has done to deserve such an end, as if death can be avoided if we only live more 'correctly.' Reading this short story made me feel very lucky to be alive and not in Ivan's serious pain. It also made scrutinize the family and friends with which I have surrounded myself. I don't believe that anyone I love would treat me as poorly as Ivan's family treated him. He had a run-of-the-mill marriage and while I believe his wife and children did love him they keep the lie alive and refuse to discuss his death. Ivan winds up mostly alone, with only his servant, Grissom to take care of him and his young son to pity him and feel his loss. With all of his anguish, at the end of the story Ivan does see a light and one has to wonder - what is this light he sees and what does this say of Tolstoy's own vision of death?

Dashing, no Dashiell

The Thin Man by Dashiell Hammett

The Thin Man is a famous series of movies staring William Powell and Myrna Loy from 1934 that my husband and I really enjoy so we decided to try reading the book. Wow! Was I ever shocked. This story was fantastic. There were lots of twists and turns in the plot (not all presented in the movie) and a complicated cast of people. In the book, Nick and Nora have a love that continues to defy conventional boundaries. Nora is an amazing strong woman that enjoys watching her husband work and can match him drink for drink. Nick is a classic hardboiled detective that has retired only to be drug back in while 'back east' with his new wife Nora. The focus of the story remains on the case, but the relationship between Nick and Nora shines through. Instead of being mushy and corny, they each maintain strong independence and opinions. I can imagine this story was a bit risque in 1934 and it is rare that a relationship represented so convincingly even in modern literature. All said, this book has something for everyone, mystery, suspense, romance, and a little murder.

Me Tarzan, You Silly

Tarzan of the Apes by Edgar Rice Burroughs

Tarzan is an amazing fast-paced adventure story. I had little expectation for this short book by Burroughs. This was my first read of this author and I had no idea what kind of story I was in for. Tarzan's parents die in the jungles of Africa when they are abandoned by the ship captain following a mutiny. After Tarzan's parents die he is adopted by Kala, and ape that becomes his mother. The novel is filled with examples of social darwinism (Tarzan knows not to eat human flesh because of his 'English Lord' bloodline) and blatant racism of it's time (first published in 1912). While some of the classic phrases like, 'Me Tarzan, You Jane' are not in the book (Tarzan speaks only French and writes only English), the book is far superior to the 'Crocodile Dundee'-like plot of the campy movies. Tarzan is an interesting bridge to the past with a galloping plot and a twist ending - and if you're like me you can finish it in a single rainy afternoon!

Love in the time of Canada

Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Garcia Marquez has told another amazing story with Love in the Time of Cholera. The story follows Fermina Daza and Florentino Ariza from a short-lived fling in their youth through a deeper love found when they are reunited in their 70s. Garcia Marquez tells a story similar to how his own parents met and his strong admiration for their relationship shines throughout the novel. He challenges us to understand, with a brave simplicity, a love that is strong enough to still burn strong after 51 years, nine months, four days, and 622 affairs. The marriage of Fermina Daza to Dr. Juvenal Urbino is so believable that I can recognize some of those potential arguments in my own married future. Fermina's devastating loss of Juvenal and later disgust with Florentino are written with a style that breaks down barriers between author and reader so that by the tie you finish the book you wish you could discuss the plot with the characters. While Garcia Marquez is often touted as 'the fabulous Columbian author', I would argue that his books are amazing not because of where he's from, but the solitude, love and heartache that he conveys with such emotion. His unique talent allows all of us to further understand what it means to be human.

Tough Guys screw around

Tough Guys Don't Dance by Norman Mailer

Well, I was a Norman Mailer virgin until now. The lead character, Tim Madden, fins himself in a sticky situation when he wakes up "on the 24th day after his wife Patty left him" to a car full of blood, a small pot farm with a head in a footlocker, and a call from the chief of police (now married to Tim's ex-girlfriend). Mailer creates robust characters in Tim and Chief Regency, the despicable drunk and the psycho cop. The tale is supposed to be an exploration of machoism and homosexuality, but I found it quite tame by today's standards. The plot, while claiming to be fast-paced mystery, is more about Tim's awkward worship of his tough guy father than the murder mystery. The climax comes too late and is so muddled (described by Wardley Meeks III and Captain Regency) that I wound up reading it twice just to be sure I had really understood the resolution. While Mailer's writing is well worth plodding through the book and he broaches some interesting topics, I won't be diving into the huge tomb, Executioner's Song, anytime soon.

I dedicate this post to one of my favorite tough guy movie characters, Patrick Swayze as Dalton in the movie Roadhouse. Swayze was great in this classic 80s flick. Just try to flip past it when it's on TV - I bet you'll wind up sucked in once again. I hope you're doing well Swayze.

These Violet Eyes are smiling...

Through Violet Eyes by Stephen Woodworth

Woodworth paints an interesting picture in this race-to-the-finish novel.  The main character, Dan, is a typical divorced detective that lost his family because of his inner struggle with shooting the wrong guy on the job. In this book he's trying to find out who's killing 'the Violets', a group of unrelated people used by the government to witness murders because of their ability to channel the dead.  The reality built by Woodworth is hokey and 'the Violets' seem a bit too much like a gimmick at more than a few points in the story, but the plot keeps you turning the pages all the way to the unexpected ending.  While in retrospect the premise of the novel was a bit silly and the world Woodworth creates is hardly Star Wars quality, it was a fun book and it kept my mind occupied while pedaling away on our new stationary bike!  If you like action and need a break from a longwinded classic, this story will certainly provide some much needed procrastination and entertainment.

Here, There, Neverwhere

Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman

Gaiman introduces a whole new context for the term 'London Underground' with his book Neverwhere.  The story is set in the tunnels and sewers below the London.  The book opens with Richard, a lawyer just beginning to make his mark, finding a scared and battered girl, Door, on the street.  Instead of ignoring the girl (much to the disdain of his girlfriend Jessica) he takes her home and eases her back to health with the help of characters from the underground.  Unfortunately after the incident he is no longer visible to the people of 'London Above'.  He joins a quest with Door, her friend des Cabras, and their bodyguard Hunter to find her parents' murder in hopes of going home to his reality.  The entire story was well written and fast paced.  We see growth in all of the characters, but a larger change is seen in Richard.  A common man with little passion for his life and scared of everything becomes a warrior.  One of the best scenes in the story involves Richard confronting himself to discover who he is and what reality he is living in.  Richard winds up talking to himself and one of the details like - he hears his friend Gary (that is really him) talking to him with the voice that is his own, and not the voice from answering machines, video cameras, or other electronic devices - the voice of what he sounds like inside his head, not outside.  This is a fantastic detail that everyone can relate to.  How many times have we heard ourselves recorded only to wonder - do I really sound like that?

One can't help wonder with this attention to London's homeless and poverty stricken, is Gaiman trying to push a more important agenda with this novel?  The story is fantastic on it's own, but it seems to have an obvious message to us of the 'London Above' world.  Maybe we should stop ignoring these people's voices in the streets and subways.  Maybe they have something interesting to tell us. What are you're ideas?