Even though I am reading more than I was when we first arrived up here, my habits remain changed. I finished the new Thomas King—Thumps DreadfulWater—mystery. This is not the place to begin with the series (Anne, I’m looking at you!) but for loyal readers, who have followed from the beginning, this volume is the one you didn’t know that you needed. I spun it out for weeks, simply enjoying the pace of it all, taking in a chapter or two at the end of long days, but then I was doubly pleased to have done so.
Yes, there are dark corners: geographically and psychologically. “Deep House was not so much a canyon as it was a wound. As though someone had stretched the earth until it split open. A jagged gash that ran out for about two miles, never more than a hundred yards wide.”
And the connection with the past still thrums, from an historical perspective and from Thumps’s perspective. His observations about personal responsibility and the interconnected nature of life emerge naturally from the plot and do not overlook the impact of trauma and devastation, and the relationships carry us through.
I was inspired to pick up Zora Neale Hurston’s You Don’t Know Us Negroes and Other Essays because Bill was reading her for his 2022 project; this is a substantial volume divided into five parts—”On the Folk”, “On Art and Such”, “On Race and Gender”, “On Politics” and “On the Trial of Ruby McCollum”—one which I enjoyed having been familiar with her autobiographical writing and essays in Dust Tracks on the Road.
The introduction by Henry Louis Gates Jr and Genevieve West reminds readers that “contemporaries Richard Wright, Sterling Brown, and Ralph Ellison accused her of pandering to racist stereotypes in her writings” but ZNH consistently worked against stereotyping. Consider her cheek here:
“The American Indian is a contraption of copper wires in an eternal warbonnet, with no equipment for laughter, expressionless face and that says ‘How’ when spoken to. His only activity is treachery leading to massacres. Who is so dumb as not to know all about Indians, even if they have never seen one, nor talked with anyone who ever knew one?”
ZNH was concerned with realism and her narratives are inherently complex and nuanced (including, for instance, plainspeech) in order to assemble what she viewed as authenticity. Gates and West explain:
“Let us be blunt: Hurston is engaged in a war of representation, defending ‘the race’ against detractors both white and Black, on the one hand – against those who had long parodied and mocked black speech, song, and sermons and other traditional cultural forms—and on the other hand, against the modernists who thought these forms needed to be ‘tidied up,’ given a ‘face lift,’ as Hurston put it, to be fit to be seated at the proverbial welcome table of American and, indeed, world civilization.”
Another volume in my stack thanks to Bill’s project was James Baldwin’s Giovanni’s Room, but another nudge towards more Baldwin was A. J. Verdelle’s memoir about her literary friendship with Toni Morrison (Miss Chloe), which also has plenty of love and respect for Baldwin’s work.
This 1956 novel follows his debut Go Tell It on the Mountain, and it’s a rich, concise narrative, filled with beautiful and incisive passages about love and betrayal, self-discovery and independence. But here’s a lovely Paris quotation, which doesn’t contain any spoilers:
“Behind that counter sat one of those absolutely inimitable and indomitable ladies, produced only in the city of Paris, but produced there in great numbers, who would be as outrageous and unsettling in any other city as a mermaid on a mountaintop. All over Paris they sit behind their counters like a mother bird in a nest and brood over the cash register as though it were an egg. Nothing occurring under the circle of heaven where they sit escapes their eye, if they have ever been surprised by anything, it was only in a dream—a dream they long ago ceased having.”
His characterization is deft and astute, so that even these “bit players” feel as though they have lives beyond the page (belonging to some other writer’s story perhaps). The story about David and Giovanni is well known in terms of queer literature, so I knew what to expect on that count, but there were more complications than I expected. This isn’t a story one reads for plot, however; rather, it’s a story that forces you to slow, to appreciate the prose and to allow the about-faces of understanding to unfold.
So late that it’s shameful to mention, I’ve finished Robertson Davies’ Leaven of Malice (1954), which was both entertaining and engaging, a temporary relief from reality selected with #1954Club in mind. First I reread the opening volume about life in Salterton, Tempest-Tost with its focus on amateur stage performance, then shifted into the workings of a small-town newspaper, and a problematic advertisement which causes much consternation amongst the affected townfolk. Both volumes drew on the author’s experiences acting and newspaper-man-ning in Peterborough, but with the emphasis on comedic elements.
And I also finally finished Daphne DuMaurier’s Hungry Hill, long after her designated week. Originally I began to read when I was engrossed in the trilogy by Katharine Susannah Prichard about the early days of the gold mining industry in southwestern Australia. I started to get my mining developments confused. One inescapable truth about this collision is that environmental and labour concerns about this industry are not new. Even in a novel written primarily to entertain, the idea that the land is something to be pillaged reigns supreme. “There was wealth in this country of his, ready for the taking, and only the laziness of his fellow-countrymen prevented them from enjoying it. He looked upon it as a duty, something he owed to his country and to the Almighty, to glean the hidden wealth from Hungry Hill and to give it, at a price, to the peoples of the world.”
Later in the summer, Rebecca and I determined to read Cloudstreet, primarily a story about two families’ experience of sharing a remarkable house and their various successes and struggles along the way. “The facts racked themselves up like snooker balls. He was bereaved. He was unemployed. Minus a working hand. Homeless. Broke.” Unsurprisingly, Tim Winton—known also for his environmental efforts to educate about conservation—confronts powerful issues and turns out beautiful sentences. Surprisingly, there are many notes of humour throughout the long novel. And a steady reminder that humanity’s devastation is nothing new: “Dogs get howling all down the way. Somewhere a bicycle rings. Somewhere else there’s a war on. Somewhere else people turn to shadows and powder in an instant and the streets turn to funnels and light the sky with their burning. Somewhere a war is over.”
How about you, have you read any of these? Have you finished reading later than expected for a particular event? (Or, is it simpler to ask, whether you’ve finished a book in time to properly join in with a community reading event?!)
This post never arrived in my inbox! Nor the two you added since then. I was just thinking I hadn’t heard much about MARM so headed over to see if I’d missed anything, and indeed I had. I’m glad that you’re still blogging (and reading, of course!). Cloudstreet will probably get a similarly pithy mention when I finally finish that 4 in a Row (I’m working on the 3rd and 4th now).
Hmmm, that’s interesting. I noticed that a few friends were missing from comment sections and just figured they were busy elsewhere in their lives, but maybe there’s more to it.
I’m going to investigate other site-builders and make a goal for 2023 because I’ve had enough with WordPress. There are little annoyances with every system, so that can’t be avoided, it’s life; but there are even more difficulties when you are using a WP site and having it hosted elsewhere and I’m tired of WP getting it both ways (I pay for my theme, which ends up making them money even I don’t pay them to host, and the data they garner which creates revenue for them, too) while putting sites like mine at the bottom of their priority list.
Thanks for reading Cloudstreet with me; it was a good incentive to keep at it regularly (I’m sorry I seemed to have to ask every day what the heck page we were on, but at least I’m not still asking you. LOL)
I’m going to re-subscribe by e-mail and see if that fixes the problem. I’ve run out of photo storage space on my free WP plan but I’m loath to pay to upgrade, so I may have to go back through and delete or reduce lots of images.
Ugh, I faced that problem with my own host last year and felt quite stubbornly resistant in the beginning but, ultimately, decided to increase the storage and change my habits from that point onwards (rather than go back into the extensive archives). Good luck, whatever you decide!
ha! I laughed out loud when I saw your note to me – I am developing this bad habit of jumping into mystery series aren’t I? But I remain impressed with Thomas King and Thumps, so clearly it wasn’t all bad. I would like to read the first few in the series tho, I’m sure it would give me an even better appreciation for his stellar writing 🙂
If I could find a plugin to manage it, I would love to insert a little contract here, for you to promise that you won’t read this book without reading the earlier ones. Heheh
hahah wordpress, are you listening? LOL
I’ve been curious about that new collection of Hurston’s non-fiction, but I haven’t yet got hold of a copy. Everything I’ve read of hers has been so good.
Isn’t Giovanni’s Room great? That’s one I read around the time it made sense to read it–it fit the year at Kaggsy & Simon’s 1956 project–but I didn’t ever manage to write about it. Read them late & then write about them even later!
I can’t remember if we’ve chatted about Jump at the Sun before, the video available via TPL and Kanopy. Fascinating!
Alice Walker’s edited selection of journals also includes a bit of her work in “rediscovering” and “reintroducing” to the world, ZNH: also worthwhile.
Oh, right! Now I remember entertaining the idea of reading it for that! Funny, how reading events DO impact the decision to finally pull a book from the stack, and how merely thinking about nudging it up the stack, keeping the possibility of finally reading a longtime shelf-sitter/TBR-item fresh, impacting much-later decisions about what to read…
Did you enjoy Cloudstreet in the end? I am a fan, although I haven’t read it for over twenty years (I’ve read it twice). The first time I was underwhelmed, but the second time I had been to Perth & WA, so could picture many of the locations and enjoyed it a whole lot more. I do find Winton hit or miss, but I count Cloudstreet as one of the hits.
I have the ZNH on my TBR so glad that both you & Bill have found it a worthwhile read. I will get to it one day….
It’s a book that I admired more than I loved, but I am glad to have made Winton’s acquaintance. I’ve got The Riders and Shallows on the stack, as well: either of those play a role in your Winton experience?
A purchased copy of the ZNH essays would have been more enjoyable; I would have liked to read one essay a week and, instead, felt as though I had to rush a little.
I LOVED Giovanni’s Room… exquisitely beautiful and sad. I mean to eventually read everything Baldwin has written (but you know how eventually goes…)
I’m not great at completing most readalongs or challenges during their allotted time! DDM week turns into DDM month ha ha. But it’s the impetus to pick up the book that counts!
I know, right? Now I only mentally add authors to my MRE (Must Read Everything) list cuz I’ve not been reading a lot of everything, only dreaming about it.
An interesting selection of books, as ever. I’ve been meaning to read Giovanni’s Room for the longest time, so thank you for the nudge. That beautiful quote about Paris might push me over the edge!
I’m certain you’ll find much to note about it: it reminded me, at times, of Mavis Gallant’s views on Paris…they seemed to be walking the same streets.
Ah, such interesting books! I have been reading a lot too, and am still trying to catch up with review – including my first Robertson Davies, which was a real winner. And fortunately I have more in the pipeline!!
I’m so excited to hear this because I’ve long believed it was a match in the making: you have a delight ahead of you, as everything, even the “so-called” minor works, will tickle you in different ways, I trust.
A nicely varied summer’s reading! I liked Cloudstreet and watched a very enjoyable adaptation several years ago.
Nice, I saw references to that online and fondly recalled the mini-series of other international and Canadian novels from back then (including The Thorn Birds, of course, which I mention partly to teasingly irk Bill) which I enjoyed very much as well.
I have shamefully not read any Baldwin, but I picked up a copy of The Fire Next Time last week to add to my winter reading pile, when, I presume, biking to the library for new books every week will not be something I am eager to do.
That one is definitely on my list, but not at my fingertips currently. I’m already in “winter mode” here, so the library trips are much less frequent for me, too. Sok, as you say, lots to read anyhow. #niceproblemstohave
A really interesting range of books! Giovanni’s Room was the first Baldwin I read and I just fell in love with his writing.
I can see that being an excellent gateway; I started with his first novel and, until now, the rest of his books were on my “someday” list. I’m most excited to read his essays though (usually that works in the opposite direction for me) as I’ve only read some in anthologies and don’t feel like that’s quite enough. Any specific recommendations or faves?
Sounds like a good, varied summer of reading. Good to hear from you again, and it’s interesting to hear how your reading habits have changed.
Oh, I’m terrible with reading events! I used to sign up for more of them, but after so many times of either not reading the book in time or reading it and then getting buried in other deadlines so that I didn’t have time to write the post, I’ve cut back now. My favourite is Japanese Literature Challenge, which is spread over three months—even I can manage to read a book and write a post in that time!
One factor that’s been surprising is, that when you live in a city that fills the crater made when a meteorite hit the planet, roads are confusing and winding; without a car, it takes sooo long to walk anywhere. I expected things would take longer (than in the city, where shops are just a minute or two away, in your neighbourhood and, occasionally, you venture farther for special reasons) but not as much longer as it’s proven to be. And that affects everything, although it also keeps my hamstrings happy. Hah.
The problem with wanting to read everything, is that it takes time to read everything! #conundrum
Ah, that must take some getting used to! But yes, good exercise, and also I’d imagine a great way to get to know the place, block by confusing, winding block
Definitely! Because there are so many waterways, I feel like I discover another short trail every time I walk, no exaggeration. But, oyyy, taking a wrong turn out there when you have to pee can turn exploring into a whole lot of wriggling and wincing. 😀
Buried, it’s lovely to see you again – or should I flick back and discover posts I overlooked – and then to find myself if not featured at least mentioned. I have read one Hurston and one Baldwin in the last few months for my project, and absolutely loved them, and others earlier, but remember in a distant past disliking Giovanni’s Room. Hurston, and this time I read Their Eyes Were Watching God which I suppose all north Americans have read, is totally about the language; interesting, believable that you should say she was seeking to protect it both from parody and from modernising? whitewashing?
Tim Winton lives, relatively speaking, only a street or two over from me, but I have never warmed to his cuteness, nor even to his ecological earnestness, and Cloud Street is my least favourite of all his works, for reasons I no longer remember.
Hope all is well in the wilds. Do you long in your heart still for the familiar snow-swept streets of Toronto? cheers from (temporarily) very sultry far northern Aust.
And now I realise that I should have included a link to your posts; I’ll edit that so others can check out your thoughts on these books too. Back in the past, I remember choosing between two of Baldwin’s novels and opting for the other over GR (Go Tell it on the Mountain) but I don’t remember why that one took hold at that time. Our younger reading selves, though, they only knew what they knew then, eh? Heheh
It seems unlikely to me that very many Canadians have read Zora Neale Hurston although, with the relatively recent publication of her Barracoon (and this sharp looking, new volume of non-fiction), perhaps that’s changing. Hurston I discovered via a short trip to New York State in my 20s, when I visited the women’s rights sights in Seneca Falls, NY (home of Elizabeth Cady Stanton) and, later, the Harriet Tubman home in Auburn NY.
One thing I think I remember that you objected to in Cloudstreet was the sense that he rather suddenly introduces a subplot into the story of the two families (I think I read this in a discussion of some other book on TAL, but I don’t remember which) but I’m sure you have a much more extensive list of complaints. *grins And of course if he’s a neighbourhood boy, there’s all the more likelihood that you’ll have QUESTIONS.
Yes, but that’s not to say there aren’t many beautiful and interesting things to explore and contemplate up here too. Some recent daytrips with a rented car yielded some awe-some sights. Hope you can get some relief from the heat and humidity.